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Shop nowThe Book of Salt
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Learn more"[He] came to us through an advertisement that I had in desperation put in the newspaper." It began captivatingly for those days: "Two American ladies wish…" It was these lines in The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book that inspired The Book of Salt.
In Paris, 1934, Bình has accompanied his employers, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, to the train station for their departure to America. His own destination is unclear: will he go with "the Steins," stay in France, or return to his native Vietnam?
Bình has fled his homeland in disgrace, leaving behind his malevolent charlatan of a father and his self-sacrificing mother. For five years, he has been the live-in cook at the famous apartment at 27 rue de Fleurus. Before Bình's decision is revealed, his mesmerizing narrative catapults us back to his youth in French-colonized Vietnam, his years as a galley hand at sea, and his days turning out fragrant repasts for the doyennes of the lost generation.
Monique Truong was born in Saigon in 1968 and moved to the United States at age six. She graduated from Yale University and the Columbia University School of Law, going on to specialize in intellectual property. Truong coedited the anthology Watermark: Vietnamese American Poetry and Prose. Her first novel, The Book of Salt, a national bestseller, has been awarded the 2003 Bard Fiction Prize, the Stonewall Book Award-Barbara Gittings Literature Award, and the Young Lions Fiction Award, among other honors. Granting Truong an Award of Excellence, the Vietnamese American Studies Center at San Francisco State University called her “a pioneer in the field, as an academic, an advocate, and an artist.” Truong now lives in Brooklyn, New York.
J. Paul Boehmer is an American actor best known for his numerous appearances in the Star Trek universe. Hkis audiobook narrations have garnered nine AudioFile Earphones Awards and two prestigious Audie Awards for Best Narration, besides being a finalist for the Audie Award in 2012 and 2015. Between narrations, he is active in regional theaters across the country. His television appearances include guest spots on Nip/Tuck and Numb3rs.
Reviews
“The story of the uprooted basket weaver is a parable for the kind of vessel that Monique Truong has fashioned in The Book of Salt. Against the odds, she has made unsettling art from precisely such exotic cuttings and transplantings.”
“Truong leaps between scenes of Bình’s pleasure and humiliation, using the language of gastronomy to communicate the daily indignities of servitude and colonialism.”
“The tone throughout is poignant, lightened by Bình’s subversive wit; for all his bitterness and resentment, he is a captivating narrator, as adept at describing Stein’s literary salon as the contents of Toklas’s kitchen…The narrative rings with emotional authenticity.”
“Truong provides a savory debut novel of unexpected depth and emotion.”
“A fascinating, original, and sharply written story with vivid insights into the world of cooking.”
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