One of our Great Reads you may have missed in 2011.

Young Rose, aged 9 when the story opens, finds that she can tell the mood of the person who cooked the food she is eating. It turns out that the rest of her family have some pretty weird traits too but it all seems quite natural – rather as The Time Traveler’s Wife settings seemed natural at the time of reading. So this is not for the literal minded, it’s magical realism beautifully written, a bit sad and very special.

A Richard and Judy Autumn Read 2011.

Comparison: Ali Shaw, Alice Hoffman, Audrey Niffenegger
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Synopsis

On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein, a girl at the periphery of schoolyard games and her distracted parents' attention, bites into her mother's homemade lemon-chocolate cake and discovers she has a magical gift: she can taste her mother's emotions in the slice. She discovers this gift to her horror, for her mother – her cheerful, can-do mother – tastes of despair and desperation. Suddenly, and for the rest of her life, food becomes perilous. Anything can be revealed at any meal.

Rose’s gift forces her to confront the secret knowledge all families keep hidden – truths about her mother's life outside the home, her father's strange detachment and her brother's clash with the world. Yet as Rose grows up, she realises there are some secrets that even her taste buds cannot discern.

Reviews

'Moving, fanciful, and gorgeously strange.' -- People

'One of the year's highlights. Intense and compelling.' -- The Oregonian

'Marvelous. . . . Few writers are as adept as Bender at mingling magical elements so seamlessly with the ordinary.' -- San Francisco Chronicle

'A richly imagined, bittersweet tale.' -- Vanity Fair

'Convincing and elegant. . . . A novel with a deeply involving plot, one full of provocative ideas.' -- The Boston Globe

'Extraordinary. . . . Not just a deeply felt novel but one of the most inventive pieces of food writing in recent memory.' -- Time Out New York

'Profound and eye-opening. . . . You feel--that rare and beautiful gift from a truly great book--woken up and unalone.' -- The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

'Rose is an irresistible narrator: warm, witty and sharply observant. . . . Exuberant, life-affirming.' -- The Miami Herald

About the Author

Aimee Bender is the author of the novel An Invisible Sign of My Own and of the collections The Girl in the Flammable Skirt and Wilful Creatures. Her work has been widely anthologised and has been translated into ten languages. She lives in Los Angeles. More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation