Novel
Like Water for Chocolate
Como agua para chocolate
Laura Esquivel · 1989
Synopsis
On a ranch near Piedras Negras, during the revolution, Tita de la Garza is the youngest of the three daughters of Mamá Elena, a tyrannical widow. Family tradition obliges her to remain unmarried to look after her mother until the latter's death; Pedro, who loves her, therefore marries her sister Rosaura to stay near her. Raised in the kitchen by the old Nacha, Tita puts her feelings into her dishes, and those who eat them feel them in turn.
Context
The novel appeared in 1989 from Planeta, in Mexico City, under the subtitle “novela de entregas mensuales con recetas, amores y remedios caseros”: it imitates monthly serials, and each chapter opens with a recipe. The title takes up a Mexican expression for an emotion at boiling point. Alfonso Arau brought it to the screen in 1992 from a screenplay by the author, and the film became one of the biggest foreign successes in the United States.
Who it is for
About two hundred and fifty pages in twelve chapters, one per month, in which the recipes are part of the story; translated into French and English.
Prizes and reception
A bestseller in Mexico and the United States, translated into more than thirty languages; American Booksellers Book of the Year award in 1994, the first foreign author to receive it.
Sources for this page 8
The pages consulted to check this page.