Novel
The Mistress of Spices
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni · 1997
Synopsis
Tilo runs an Indian grocery shop in an immigrant neighbourhood of Oakland, California. She received her knowledge from the First Mother, on a secret island in India, at the price of strict rules: she can make spices sing and seeks for each customer the spice that will restore balance to body and soul. But the prohibitions of her order, above all that of loving, weigh on her when a man foreign to her culture walks through her door.
Context
The novel appeared in 1997, after the poems of Black Candle and the stories of Arranged Marriage, devoted to immigrant women from India and neighbouring countries. It blends prose and poetry, the everyday and the marvellous. Paul Berges made a film from it, written with Gurinder Chadha. Marie-Odile Probst translated it into French in 1999. The author's other books have followed in French, among them Ma sœur, mon amour and Le Porteur de conque.
Who it is for
A novel that exists in French. It requires accepting the marvellous without questioning its plausibility.
Prizes and reception
Shortlisted for the Orange Prize; the book that made its author known.
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