Like water for chocolate: a novel in monthly installments, with recipes, romances, and home remedies

Earthy, magical, and utterly charming, this tale of family life in turn-of-the-century Mexico became a best-selling phenomenon with its winning blend of poignant romance and bittersweet wit.

BookList

The first English translation of Mexico’s top best-seller in 1990. Each chapter of this unusual novel is prefaced with a recipe, but the recipes have more to do with romance than food. The dishes impart the intoxicating flavors of fantastic lust, grief, jealousy, and all the other passions that permeate this sensual love story. The heroine, Tita, is the youngest of three daughters. Practically raised in the kitchen, she is expected to spend her life waiting on Mama Elena and never to marry. Her habitual torment increases when her beloved Pedro becomes engaged to one of her sisters. Tita and he are thrown into tantalizing proximity and manage to communicate their affection through the dishes she prepares for him and his rapturous appreciation. Eventually, Tita’s culinary wizardry unleashes uncontrollable forces, with surprising results. Fanciful, earthy, and sublime, this is a joy to read.