Product Description

On the morning Devi decides to take her life, fate conspires against her. Fate in the form of her mother, Saroj, who uses her spare key to let herself into her youngest daughter's apartment when she thinks she's at work. But, having lost yet another job, and knowing she will never live up to the example her oldest sister has set her as a traditional Indian wife, Devi had decided to take the easy way out. But it seems she can add suicide to her list of failings. But whilst Saroj insists on telling the world that it was she who saved her daughter's life, Devi isn't sure what she's been saved for. Forced to move back in with her parents until she is strong enough to resume her life, she adopts a vow of silence. Instead, she begins to cook. Wild, crazy concoctions that are so delicious the family is drawn again and again to the table. As Devi's silence grows, so does her family's bewilderment at her behaviour. Tension builds and others begin to talk. And secrets are revealed that rock the family to its core...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #214621 in Books
• Published on: 2004-12-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Customer Reviews

Fusion cooking
After an unsuccessful suicide attempt, Devi, is taken to her parents' home in the Bay Area of San Francisco. She elects to become mute, refusing to talk even to her much loved grandmother, Vasu, who is in the US on an extended visit from India. Her psychologist suggests that, instead of talking, she keep a journal. Back home, Devi, discovers a barely used notebook in which her mother, Saroj, has copied just one recipe. Devi takes over the kitchen and the notebook and starts cooking, first of all banning her mother and then, as she starts recovering, allowing her to help. Amulya Malladi uses the new recipes devised by Devi, fusing Indian and American ingredients, as the theme of her re-integration into the family and the combination of Indian tradition and American innovation. The resulting journal of recipes and revelation becomes the instrument of healing. There are as many elements to this novel as there are to Devi's, very successful, concoctions. I loved the basic idea and, of course, the recipes. Most of all, I loved Vasu, Devi's radical and shocking grandmother.