Mistress of Spices

Description: Magical, tantalizing, and sensual, "The Mistress of Spices" tells the story of Tilo, a young woman born in another time in a faraway place who is trained in the ancient art of spices. When Tilo--disguised in the gnarled body of an old woman--travels to present-day Oakland, California, an unexpected romance with a handsome stranger forces her to choose between the supernatural life of an immortal and the vicissitudes of modern life.

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

"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

"The Mistress of Spices is a dazzling tale of misbegotten dreams and desires, hopes and expectations, woven with poetry and storyteller magic."
--Amy Tan

"A splendid novel, beautifully conceived and crafted."
--Pat Conroy