An Arab-American Chocolat—a sensual blend of food, love and longing.

Half-Iraqi, half-American Sirine is a cook at Nadia's Cafe, which draws the neighborhood's Arab students, expatriates, and exiles. All are hungry for "real true Arab food" and connection to their homes. One is Hanif Al Eyad, a new hire in the Near Eastern Studies Department at the university who fled Iraq as a young man. Sirine and Han fall in love over food: a baklava they make together, delicate lamb dishes, hummus glistening with olive oil.

Populated by colorful and memorable characters—the lovely Sirine; the handsome Han; Sirine's story-telling uncle, whose fantasic fables are woven into the novel; a poet named Aziz; Nadia and her daughter Mireille—Crescent explores the universal themes of love and loyalty to countries old and new, to those left behind, and to tradition. Some of the characters are learning to live in one country and let go of another, and some are not—a fact that sparks a surprising ending.

Diana Abu-Jaber was born in 1959 in Syracuse, New York, to a Jordanian father and an American mother. She graduated with a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from SUNY in 1986. Abu-Jaber is the author of ARABIAN JAZZ, which won the Oregon Book Award and was a finalist for the national PEN/Hemingway award. She lives in the U.S. and frequently travels to the Mideast.