Das Buch vom Salz

A passage from the "Alice B. Toklas Cook Book" inspired Monique Truong to write her novel about the Vietnamese cook of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas in Paris. He lived for five years as a cook in the famous apartment at 27 Rue de Fleurus, where Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein hosted the heroes of the Lost Generation for tea, observing their rituals and habits, their eccentricities and their genius. Monique Truong tells the story of Binh and the "Steins" in a rich, intelligent, and sensual style, intricately woven with tension and intrigue. She takes us back to Binh's youth in colonial Vietnam, his time at sea, and his attempts to find his footing in Paris. Interwoven in the text are not only lovingly ironic portraits of Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein but also remarkably original depictions of historical figures like Paul Robeson and Ho Chi Minh. Binh, the narrator, is an outsider, a lost soul whose love for men forced him to flee his homeland, serving as both a touching and somewhat unreliable storyteller. Beautifully and ambiguously written, much like Kazuo Ishiguro's butler novel "The Remains of the Day," "The Book of Salt" – dedicated to salt in food, in the sea, in tears, and in sweat – is a celebration of the senses and storytelling.