The temporary bride

Before turning forty, Jennifer Klinec left a corporate career to open a cooking school from her London flat. Raised in Canada by Hungarian and Croatian parents, she had already travelled to places many people consider dangerous, collecting old recipes.

Her search led her to Iran, where she covered her hair, kept her eyes lowered, and was taken in by a local woman willing to teach her the secrets of Persian cooking. Vahid, the woman's son, was wary of the foreigner who appeared in his mother's kitchen. He was not used to a woman who lived as independently as she did.

Attraction drew the two of them together, then set them against Iran's strict laws and customs. In his family's view, a good match could be planned by weighing age, looks, character and money, and a woman with a past did not fit that calculation. The book explores one of the world's most complex countries from the inside, and the longing to be loved, nourished and accepted.