Ask a Bookseller: a novel of friendship, food and love
Who could resist talking about a foodie novel on Thanksgiving weekend? The latest Ask a Bookseller pick comes from Kerry Lett of Turn the Page Westfield in Westfield, Indiana. Lett’s pick: “Love and Saffron: A Novel of Friendship, Food, and Love” by Kim Fay. Lett calls this epistolary novel about female friendship in the 1960s “darling” and “a beautiful story.”
When Joan, a 27-year-old food writer in Los Angeles, sends a letter to an older food writer in Seattle named Imogen, Joan doesn’t expect to launch a years-long friendship. The initial letter of appreciation comes with a gift and a request: Joan sends saffron and asks that Imogen respond with how she uses the spice.
Over the years of letters, the two women talk about events large and small, from family life to the search for cooking ingredients to the Cuban missile crisis. They continue writing through unexpected discoveries of love as well as troubled times, finding comfort in friendship and meals shared.
Lett says she received this book as a gift and has gone on to buy it for friends and family ages 30 through 80, and it was well received every time.
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