The Mistress Of Spices

"An unusual, clever, and often exquisite first novel...The result is rather as if Isabel Allende met Laura Esquivel."   -  The Los Angeles Times

Now immortal, and living in the gnarled and arthritic body of an old woman, Tilo has set up shop in Oakland, California, where she administers curatives to her customers.  But when she’s surprised by an unexpected romance with a handsome stranger, she must choose between the supernatural life of an immortal and the vicissitudes of modern society. 

"Divakaruni's prose is so pungent that it stains the page, yet beneath the sighs and smells of this brand of magic realism she deftly introduces her true theme: how an ability to accommodate desire enlivens not only the individual heart but a society cornered by change."  -  The New Yorker

Spellbinding and hypnotizing,  The Mistress Of Spices is a tale of joy and sorrow and one special woman's magical powers.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an award-winning poet who teaches creative writing at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, California, where she also serves as president of MAITRI, a helpline for South Asian women.  In 1995 her short story collection Arranged Marriage was awarded the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Prize for Fiction, the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award for Fiction, and an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation.