The Mistress of Spices by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Amazon.com
In the world created by first-time novelist Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, there is a spice to cure every human ailment, and her heroine, Tilo, is in fact The Mistress of Spices. Tilo (short for Tilottama) comes by her curative powers in a magically roundabout way. Born in India, she ends up on a remote island courtesy of pirates and sea snakes. Here she encounters an ancient woman who instructs her in the power of spice. Her education complete, Tilo heads for Oakland, California, to practice her healing arts. She diagnoses the ills of the various people who come to her spice shop, and cures them, too, until one day she discovers that magic is a double-edged sword.
In chapters named for spices, we follow Tilo's adventures from her birth to the moment she must decide whether to ply her special powers alone or share her life with another. Divakaruni has created a memorable heroine in The Mistress of Spices.
Book Description
Magical, tantalizing, and sensual, The Mistress of Spices is the story of Tilo, a young woman born in another time, in a faraway place, who is trained in the ancient art of spices and ordained as a mistress charged with special powers. Once fully initiated in a rite of fire, the now immortal Tilo--in the gnarled and arthritic body of an old woman--travels through time to Oakland, California, where she opens a shop from which she administers spices as curatives to her customers. An unexpected romance with a handsome stranger eventually forces her to choose between the supernatural life of an immortal and the vicissitudes of modern life. Spellbinding and hypnotizing, The Mistress of Spices is a tale of joy and sorrow and one special woman's magical powers.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, born in India, 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. Her fourth poetry collection, Leaving Yuba City, was published by Anchor in August 1997

 

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