Call number
FIC FAY
Collection
Genres
Publication
G.P. Putnam's Sons (2022), 208 pages
Description
Fiction. Literature. Historical Fiction. HTML:The Instant National Bestseller and #1 Indie Next Pick In the vein of the classic 84, Charing Cross Road, this witty and tender novel follows two women in 1960s America as they discover that food really does connect us all, and that friendship and laughter are the best medicine. When twenty-seven-year-old Joan Bergstrom sends a fan letterâ??as well as a gift of saffronâ??to fifty-nine-year-old Imogen Fortier, a life-changing friendship begins. Joan lives in Los Angeles and is just starting out as a writer for the newspaper food pages. Imogen lives on Camano Island outside Seattle, writing a monthly column for a Pacific Northwest magazine, and while she can hunt elk and dig for clams, sheâ??s never tasted fresh garlicâ??exotic fare in the Northwest of the sixties. As the two women commune through their letters, they build a closeness that sustains them through the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of President Kennedy, and the unexpected in their own lives. Food and a good lifeâ??they canâ??t be separated. It is a discovery the women share, not only with each other, but with the men in their lives. Because of her correspondence with Joan, Imogenâ??s decades-long marriage blossoms into something new and exciting, and in turn, Joan learns that true love does not always come in the form we expect it to. Into this beautiful, intimate world comes the ultimate test of Joan and Imogenâ??s friendshipâ??a test that summons their unconditional trust in each other. A brief respite from our chaotic world, Love & Saffron is a gem of a novel, a reminder that food and friendship are the antidote to most any heartache, and that human connection wil… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member gpangel
Love & Saffron by Kim Fay is a 2022 G.P. Putnam’s Sons publication.
A Lovely Epistolary story of food and friendship-
Beginning in the early 1960s, Joan Bergstrom writes to columnist Imogene Fortier, sending along a sample of saffron. Joan and her mother were fans of Fortier, which is what
The fragrant saffron triggered a memory for Imogene’s husband, Francis, and awakens in him a culinary flair Imogene never knew existed. Thus, Imogene answers Joan's fan letter, spawning an unlikely, but profound friendship between the two women.
As the years pass, they share their ups and downs, highs and lows, advising and offering support and encouragement to one another unwaveringly.
At the forefront of their correspondence is food. Joan is a whiz at spices and the various delights of California style cooking, while Imogene takes the recipes and adds the taste of her own region, while marveling at the new avenues Joan’s influence as opened for her, Francis, and their marriage.
The power of written words in the form of letter writing, certainly a lost art- knocked me sideways. Writing out our thoughts requires one’s undivided attention and opens an avenue of intimacy that talking on the phone can’t match.
The story made me think about that quite a bit. It is the situation that Joan faces, and the emotional choices she was forced to consider, was both frustrating and heart-rending- but her courage was also inspirational.
Obviously, it was the unconditional support and encouragement of her special friend, Imogene, that gave her the strength to make the best choices.
I loved this story- just loved it. The story is emotional at times, but overall, it is a touching and inspirational story! Highly recommend!
A Lovely Epistolary story of food and friendship-
Beginning in the early 1960s, Joan Bergstrom writes to columnist Imogene Fortier, sending along a sample of saffron. Joan and her mother were fans of Fortier, which is what
Show More
prompted the young twenty-seven-year-old Joan to write to Imogene, who was in her late fifties, at the time. The fragrant saffron triggered a memory for Imogene’s husband, Francis, and awakens in him a culinary flair Imogene never knew existed. Thus, Imogene answers Joan's fan letter, spawning an unlikely, but profound friendship between the two women.
As the years pass, they share their ups and downs, highs and lows, advising and offering support and encouragement to one another unwaveringly.
At the forefront of their correspondence is food. Joan is a whiz at spices and the various delights of California style cooking, while Imogene takes the recipes and adds the taste of her own region, while marveling at the new avenues Joan’s influence as opened for her, Francis, and their marriage.
The power of written words in the form of letter writing, certainly a lost art- knocked me sideways. Writing out our thoughts requires one’s undivided attention and opens an avenue of intimacy that talking on the phone can’t match.
The story made me think about that quite a bit. It is the situation that Joan faces, and the emotional choices she was forced to consider, was both frustrating and heart-rending- but her courage was also inspirational.
Obviously, it was the unconditional support and encouragement of her special friend, Imogene, that gave her the strength to make the best choices.
I loved this story- just loved it. The story is emotional at times, but overall, it is a touching and inspirational story! Highly recommend!
Show Less
LibraryThing member arlenadean
Title: Love & Saffron
Author: Kim Fay
Publisher: PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, G.P. Putnam's Sons
Reviewed By: Arlena Dean
Rating: Five
Review:
"Love & Saffron A Novel of Friendship, Food, and Love" by Kim Fay
My Assessment:
'Love and Saffron' was a delightful read told in a penpal form.
We find the setting of this
It was a heartwarming read seeing how these two were able "to share recipes, love of food, pleasures, even curiosities from their richness of life." What a joy it was reading about seeing these two who 'shared affinity and fascination with each other insights and experiences.' Seeing how these two stuck with each other through a little bit of it all, especially when it came to their love of cooking and food.
Even as life went on around them ...from the Cuban missile crisis, the assassination of President Kennedy, different attitudes toward people of color which brought out fears and all that brought out lots of reactions of the world as there were lots of changes coming forth and most of all hope for the future.
Be ready for not only a well-written story but also a memorable one about friendship and, oh yes, food.
Thanks to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam for the excellent read and my leaving my honest opinion from the read.
Author: Kim Fay
Publisher: PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, G.P. Putnam's Sons
Reviewed By: Arlena Dean
Rating: Five
Review:
"Love & Saffron A Novel of Friendship, Food, and Love" by Kim Fay
My Assessment:
'Love and Saffron' was a delightful read told in a penpal form.
We find the setting of this
Show More
story was from the 1960s [Seattle and Los Angeles] when Joan Bergstrom, a twenty-seven-year-old who was a columnist, and Imogen and fifty-nine-year-old Imogen Fortier, who through fan letters that produced a friendship that became good friends. Who knew that since they both worked for a newspaper and when Joan sent Imogen a packet of Saffron along with a fan letter, a friendship would come from this situation and you will have to pick up "love & Saffron to find out what all this author has in store for the reader.It was a heartwarming read seeing how these two were able "to share recipes, love of food, pleasures, even curiosities from their richness of life." What a joy it was reading about seeing these two who 'shared affinity and fascination with each other insights and experiences.' Seeing how these two stuck with each other through a little bit of it all, especially when it came to their love of cooking and food.
Even as life went on around them ...from the Cuban missile crisis, the assassination of President Kennedy, different attitudes toward people of color which brought out fears and all that brought out lots of reactions of the world as there were lots of changes coming forth and most of all hope for the future.
Be ready for not only a well-written story but also a memorable one about friendship and, oh yes, food.
Thanks to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam for the excellent read and my leaving my honest opinion from the read.
Show Less
LibraryThing member richardderus
Real Rating: 3.75* of five, rounded up because I'll read more
The Publisher Says: When twenty-seven-year-old Joan Bergstrom sends a fan letter—as well as a gift of saffron—to fifty-nine-year-old Imogen Fortier, a life-changing friendship begins. Joan lives in Los Angeles and is just starting out
Food and a good life—they can’t be separated. It is a discovery the women share, not only with each other, but with the men in their lives. Because of her correspondence with Joan, Imogen’s decades-long marriage blossoms into something new and exciting, and in turn, Joan learns that true love does not always come in the form we expect it to. Into this beautiful, intimate world comes the ultimate test of Joan and Imogen’s friendship—a test that summons their unconditional trust in each other.
A brief respite from our chaotic world, Love & Saffron is a gem of a novel, a reminder that food and friendship are the antidote to most any heartache, and that human connection will always be worth creating.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: First, read this:
We’ve never had mussels before. I’ve always thought of them as freeloaders clinging where they’re not wanted, and you must agree, their beards are unappetizing.
–and–
Our ten days in Paris felt like the blink of an eye. Or a dream. An elegant, buttery, wine-soaked dream.
–and–
When a new experience comes into my life, it doesn’t feel real anymore until I share it with you.
I'll be honest: I asked for this DRC because the subtitle uses the series (or Oxford) comma correctly, which is as promising a start as I can conjure in these degenerate punctuation-heretical times, and the tale is told in epistolary format. I am in the mood for a story of friendship. I am always gruntled by the effective use of epistolary storytelling. And I deeply love reading about people sharing their love of food.
You'll be looking up at that not-quite-four-star rating about now. I can explain.
All of my initial conditions were met, and met fully. I got the epistolary format used well: These are friends by post. There are gaps, lacunae in communicating with each other, and that enables the author to move the pace along in a more natural way. The fact that each letter was a crafted document, a thing one sat down to make and to serve a purpose...evoking in the friend an emotional response...that requires thought. Attention. Serious choice-making. That was evident in the prose (see above).
In Part I, the friendship developed from an initial fan letter that touched Imogen, the recipient, because of its inclusion of a packet of saffron. Now's the time to talk about the 1960s in the USA. As the world is now, a packet of saffron is a welcome gift because it's not cheap. As the world was then, a gift of a narwhal tusk would have about the same impact as saffron. "Whatinahell's that?" Imogen, who can dig clams or hunt an elk, hasn't tasted fresh garlic. In her life. Imagine the impact of SAFFRON! And no, those under 50, this wasn't in the least bit unusual.
I grew up in a household that had WAY more in the way of culinary adventurousness than the average. My parents were older when I was born, we lived near San Francisco, California, which had Chinese, Italian, Mexican, Japanese cuisines and ingredients all over, and my mother loved to experiment with weird, Gourmet-magazine type dishes. (Tuesday dinner, not so much. Feasts, though....) Then my mother and I moved to South Texas, where she hailed from, and I found the goddesses' natural food: Tex-Mex. BUT no one in 1967 Mercedes, Texas, had ever seen a fresh apricot or tasted General Tso's chicken. And that is where I can relate to this story: Joan is possessed of knowledge that Imogen simply doesn't have, or have any way to know she lacks.
So this cultural exchange is one I loved reading about. The historical moment...Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK assassination, the Beatles on Ed Sullivan ("a rrrrrrilllllly big shew!")...was the background of my childhood. They write to each other about it all. They write to each other about their cooking adventures. Single Joan has a lot to offer long-married Imogen because she (figuratively) listens and isn't invested in a particular outcome. What Imogen offers Joan is the simple, invaluable resource of being older, and experienced, and generous with her time, too. In a long novella/short novel, the two forge a perfectly balanced and genuinely moving friendship.
And now about those missing stars.
I am not nit-picking when I say that a book with the delicious recipes in it that this book has (the carne asada!!) needs to hyperlink them somewhere. I don't have a final copy, of course, but the paper copies don't appear to have an index either. (This is as of 6 February 2022, 6pm EST, when I went trolling for reviews last.) Yes yes yes, one can highlight them on the Kindle, but this is an oversight that would make the book even better if it were addressed. There's one quarter star.
Francis, Imogen's husband, blossoming into a passionate foodie during the course of the correspondence is a pleasure, insofar as it's presented to us...but Imogen is reporting it, of course, as it's an epistolary novel between Joan and herself. It's a feature, not a bug; but it left me feeling distanced from Imogen's lived life. I don't think this was a deal-breaker because epistolary...it's in the description...but I do think its impact on Imogen wasn't able to be explored quite as well as would've served the tale told. A quarter-star, and a sigh of regret for a too-short third-person catch-up in Part II.
Joan's life as a secretary at Rexall Drugs was, of course, the kind of job a girl (in the lingo of the time) could expect to get. Imogen encouraging her, boosting her, being there for her as she worked through anxiety and internalized misogyny and pursued her dreams of life in the newspaper world, was just a balm.
But then what? I didn't feel Joan got the spotlight enough as time went by...and that is down, again, to the format chosen to tell the story. But it felt unfinished as it was, with a too-short third-person wrap-up for Joan, too. Not because it wasn't a complete story! Because there was more story I wanted. Another quarter star forgone for expectations raised but not quite met.
When we return to epistolary format in Part III, the magic's worn off...the sweet, nostalgic sense of familiarity at a safe remove isn't there any more. But that isn't a deal-breaker so much as the force of the narrative doesn't have a chance to recover, so the half-star goes because, for the very first time, I noticed myself noticing I wasn't as ensorcelled as I started the read being. (Maybe if the third-person narratives had been diary entries...? I am Monday-morning quarterbacking here, so I'll stop.)
What I'll end on is the sheer pleasure of reading that this one-sitting tale offered. I think any book group that needs to lighten the tone and pick up the pace after a tough read should get this book onto their lists ASAP. I think pandemic-weary people whose lives have shifted into a new configuration through discovering food and cooking would like this for a February Sunday afternoon's pleasure. Most of all, I want to assure anyone thinking "this old man's a nutbar for pushing the read at me with this 3-3/4-star rating" is correct. This old man is, in fact, a nutbar. And one whose purpose it is to tell you what's worth reading.
This is worth reading.
The Publisher Says: When twenty-seven-year-old Joan Bergstrom sends a fan letter—as well as a gift of saffron—to fifty-nine-year-old Imogen Fortier, a life-changing friendship begins. Joan lives in Los Angeles and is just starting out
Show More
as a writer for the newspaper food pages. Imogen lives on Camano Island outside Seattle, writing a monthly column for a Pacific Northwest magazine, and while she can hunt elk and dig for clams, she’s never tasted fresh garlic—exotic fare in the Northwest of the sixties. As the two women commune through their letters, they build a closeness that sustains them through the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of President Kennedy, and the unexpected in their own lives.Food and a good life—they can’t be separated. It is a discovery the women share, not only with each other, but with the men in their lives. Because of her correspondence with Joan, Imogen’s decades-long marriage blossoms into something new and exciting, and in turn, Joan learns that true love does not always come in the form we expect it to. Into this beautiful, intimate world comes the ultimate test of Joan and Imogen’s friendship—a test that summons their unconditional trust in each other.
A brief respite from our chaotic world, Love & Saffron is a gem of a novel, a reminder that food and friendship are the antidote to most any heartache, and that human connection will always be worth creating.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: First, read this:
We’ve never had mussels before. I’ve always thought of them as freeloaders clinging where they’re not wanted, and you must agree, their beards are unappetizing.
–and–
Our ten days in Paris felt like the blink of an eye. Or a dream. An elegant, buttery, wine-soaked dream.
–and–
When a new experience comes into my life, it doesn’t feel real anymore until I share it with you.
I'll be honest: I asked for this DRC because the subtitle uses the series (or Oxford) comma correctly, which is as promising a start as I can conjure in these degenerate punctuation-heretical times, and the tale is told in epistolary format. I am in the mood for a story of friendship. I am always gruntled by the effective use of epistolary storytelling. And I deeply love reading about people sharing their love of food.
You'll be looking up at that not-quite-four-star rating about now. I can explain.
All of my initial conditions were met, and met fully. I got the epistolary format used well: These are friends by post. There are gaps, lacunae in communicating with each other, and that enables the author to move the pace along in a more natural way. The fact that each letter was a crafted document, a thing one sat down to make and to serve a purpose...evoking in the friend an emotional response...that requires thought. Attention. Serious choice-making. That was evident in the prose (see above).
In Part I, the friendship developed from an initial fan letter that touched Imogen, the recipient, because of its inclusion of a packet of saffron. Now's the time to talk about the 1960s in the USA. As the world is now, a packet of saffron is a welcome gift because it's not cheap. As the world was then, a gift of a narwhal tusk would have about the same impact as saffron. "Whatinahell's that?" Imogen, who can dig clams or hunt an elk, hasn't tasted fresh garlic. In her life. Imagine the impact of SAFFRON! And no, those under 50, this wasn't in the least bit unusual.
I grew up in a household that had WAY more in the way of culinary adventurousness than the average. My parents were older when I was born, we lived near San Francisco, California, which had Chinese, Italian, Mexican, Japanese cuisines and ingredients all over, and my mother loved to experiment with weird, Gourmet-magazine type dishes. (Tuesday dinner, not so much. Feasts, though....) Then my mother and I moved to South Texas, where she hailed from, and I found the goddesses' natural food: Tex-Mex. BUT no one in 1967 Mercedes, Texas, had ever seen a fresh apricot or tasted General Tso's chicken. And that is where I can relate to this story: Joan is possessed of knowledge that Imogen simply doesn't have, or have any way to know she lacks.
So this cultural exchange is one I loved reading about. The historical moment...Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK assassination, the Beatles on Ed Sullivan ("a rrrrrrilllllly big shew!")...was the background of my childhood. They write to each other about it all. They write to each other about their cooking adventures. Single Joan has a lot to offer long-married Imogen because she (figuratively) listens and isn't invested in a particular outcome. What Imogen offers Joan is the simple, invaluable resource of being older, and experienced, and generous with her time, too. In a long novella/short novel, the two forge a perfectly balanced and genuinely moving friendship.
And now about those missing stars.
I am not nit-picking when I say that a book with the delicious recipes in it that this book has (the carne asada!!) needs to hyperlink them somewhere. I don't have a final copy, of course, but the paper copies don't appear to have an index either. (This is as of 6 February 2022, 6pm EST, when I went trolling for reviews last.) Yes yes yes, one can highlight them on the Kindle, but this is an oversight that would make the book even better if it were addressed. There's one quarter star.
Francis, Imogen's husband, blossoming into a passionate foodie during the course of the correspondence is a pleasure, insofar as it's presented to us...but Imogen is reporting it, of course, as it's an epistolary novel between Joan and herself. It's a feature, not a bug; but it left me feeling distanced from Imogen's lived life. I don't think this was a deal-breaker because epistolary...it's in the description...but I do think its impact on Imogen wasn't able to be explored quite as well as would've served the tale told. A quarter-star, and a sigh of regret for a too-short third-person catch-up in Part II.
Joan's life as a secretary at Rexall Drugs was, of course, the kind of job a girl (in the lingo of the time) could expect to get. Imogen encouraging her, boosting her, being there for her as she worked through anxiety and internalized misogyny and pursued her dreams of life in the newspaper world, was just a balm.
But then what? I didn't feel Joan got the spotlight enough as time went by...and that is down, again, to the format chosen to tell the story. But it felt unfinished as it was, with a too-short third-person wrap-up for Joan, too. Not because it wasn't a complete story! Because there was more story I wanted. Another quarter star forgone for expectations raised but not quite met.
When we return to epistolary format in Part III, the magic's worn off...the sweet, nostalgic sense of familiarity at a safe remove isn't there any more. But that isn't a deal-breaker so much as the force of the narrative doesn't have a chance to recover, so the half-star goes because, for the very first time, I noticed myself noticing I wasn't as ensorcelled as I started the read being. (Maybe if the third-person narratives had been diary entries...? I am Monday-morning quarterbacking here, so I'll stop.)
What I'll end on is the sheer pleasure of reading that this one-sitting tale offered. I think any book group that needs to lighten the tone and pick up the pace after a tough read should get this book onto their lists ASAP. I think pandemic-weary people whose lives have shifted into a new configuration through discovering food and cooking would like this for a February Sunday afternoon's pleasure. Most of all, I want to assure anyone thinking "this old man's a nutbar for pushing the read at me with this 3-3/4-star rating" is correct. This old man is, in fact, a nutbar. And one whose purpose it is to tell you what's worth reading.
This is worth reading.
Show Less
LibraryThing member nicx27
Love & Saffron is an absolute delight from start to finish, a book crammed with charm and emotion. I must admit to a love/hate relationship with the epistolary novel. The letter format often takes away the depth of feeling that I really want from a book and so I approached Love & Saffron, a book
The two characters are Joan, aged 27, and Imogen, aged 59. Their correspondence begins when Joan writes a fan letter to Imogen, who has a regular food column in a magazine. It's early 1960s America and so there's no immediacy to their communications which brings a gentleness to the whole story. As the book progresses the two women become very good friends, despite the long-distance and the age gap between them.
The early gift of saffron from Joan to Imogen unites them in a love of food and flavours. There are plenty of descriptions of herbs and food from various cultures in their letters and I really loved the tales of finding ingredients, shopping at markets, and cooking. There's even a few recipes to enjoy.
Love & Saffron moved me greatly, particularly when one of the characters does something so incredibly thoughtful, and then at the end. Tears were shed and I found myself coming away with a feeling of warmth and a deep regard for Joan and Imogen, who had unexpectedly found the friendship of a lifetime. It's a short book and covers a relatively short period of time, but it worked perfectly, never felt rushed, and just felt right. I thought it was completely gorgeous.
Show More
that I thought sounded lovely, with a degree of caution. I needn't have worried though. My feelings for the two main characters grew as their friendship did, from a rather formal beginning to a closeness that neither they, nor I, could have imagined.The two characters are Joan, aged 27, and Imogen, aged 59. Their correspondence begins when Joan writes a fan letter to Imogen, who has a regular food column in a magazine. It's early 1960s America and so there's no immediacy to their communications which brings a gentleness to the whole story. As the book progresses the two women become very good friends, despite the long-distance and the age gap between them.
The early gift of saffron from Joan to Imogen unites them in a love of food and flavours. There are plenty of descriptions of herbs and food from various cultures in their letters and I really loved the tales of finding ingredients, shopping at markets, and cooking. There's even a few recipes to enjoy.
Love & Saffron moved me greatly, particularly when one of the characters does something so incredibly thoughtful, and then at the end. Tears were shed and I found myself coming away with a feeling of warmth and a deep regard for Joan and Imogen, who had unexpectedly found the friendship of a lifetime. It's a short book and covers a relatively short period of time, but it worked perfectly, never felt rushed, and just felt right. I thought it was completely gorgeous.
Show Less
LibraryThing member LadyoftheLodge
This short and comfortable read features correspondence between two women as its format. Although their letters to each other begin with sharing recipes and cooking tips, they quickly become much more. Immy and Joan soon become good friends and begin discussing details of their personal lives. They
"Love and Saffron" is a clean story of friendship, set in the 1960's. I enjoyed the details of life in that time period, and also found it interesting to compare the moral standards of the time to current ones. I recommend this novel to those readers who enjoy a diary/correspondence format, with glimpses into the political and social aspects of the 1960's.
I received this book from the publisher and from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.
Show More
gather courage and strength from each other, although they only meet in person one time over the few years of their correspondence. "Love and Saffron" is a clean story of friendship, set in the 1960's. I enjoyed the details of life in that time period, and also found it interesting to compare the moral standards of the time to current ones. I recommend this novel to those readers who enjoy a diary/correspondence format, with glimpses into the political and social aspects of the 1960's.
I received this book from the publisher and from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.
Show Less
LibraryThing member MM_Jones
Designed to be read in one sitting, this ode to friendship and incidentally food is set in the early 1960's. Placing one character in Southern California with the other north of Seattle, the author creates a fictional friendship via correspondence between two writers. Locations and news items are
Show More
incorporated to set the scene. Show Less
LibraryThing member bookworm12
A gentle epistolary novel set in the 1960s. Two women begin writing letters to each other based on their love of food. As complications arise in their lives they support each other despite their very different circumstances. This one gave me all the feels and was a joy to read. I love food memoirs,
Show More
epistolary novels, strong female characters, and descriptions of travel so I had a feeling this one would be a hit for me. Show Less
LibraryThing member Maydacat
Two women are brought together through a newspaper column and a mutual love of food. Joan is just starting out as a food writer, and she sends a fan letter to an older, established writer, along with a small gift of saffron. They strike up a friendship carried on through letters and gradually
Show More
become the best of friends. They share encouragement, advice, and moments of joys with each other. This tale is a hopeful one, and though poignant and sad at times, it will leave you feeling refreshed and restored. This epistolary novel is well written, thoughtful, and short enough that the author intended it to be read in one sitting. This book was recommended to me by a library friend. The summary compared this book to a couple of other books - one of which I had read and one which I hadn’t. When I looked up info on the latter one, a delightful review by a book friend enticed me to read that one as well, and so my reading life has been enriched through these two books. I always love it when one book I like leads me to another one just as good. Show Less
LibraryThing member eesti23
"'When shall we live, if not now?' Apparently, this is a quote from an ancient Roman named Seneca."
"The less we cement ourselves to our certainties, the fuller our lives can be."
Love & Saffron: A Novel of Friendship, Food, and Love isn't a super long book, but it doesn't take you long to get tosharing of communal (Cuban missile crisis, assassination of JFK) and personal (unmarried pregnancy and cancer) experiences bond them for life. I loved when Immy went to see John (and Mateo) and Joan named her baby after Immy. There is a sad ending with a hint of happiness.
A touching story and sweet friendship. I enjoyed it.
"The less we cement ourselves to our certainties, the fuller our lives can be."
Love & Saffron: A Novel of Friendship, Food, and Love isn't a super long book, but it doesn't take you long to get to
Show More
know Joan (27) and Imogen "Immy" (59) who become pen friends based on their love of food. Different in many ways, their A touching story and sweet friendship. I enjoyed it.
Show Less
LibraryThing member shazjhb
Sweet short book in the style of letters. Great food
LibraryThing member 4leschats
A saffron packet and fan letter start a long term pen pal relationship between the older Imogen and the younger Joan as the two share their love of food and life. A very gentle, quick read that captures the beauty of love, food, and friendship.
LibraryThing member Desiree_Reads
A very short book - I read it in about two hours.
A sweet tale, but it ended rather abruptly, dulling the emotional impact it should have had.
A fun, brief journey, though, through friendship, and talking about food, just like the cover says.
A sweet tale, but it ended rather abruptly, dulling the emotional impact it should have had.
A fun, brief journey, though, through friendship, and talking about food, just like the cover says.
Awards
RUSA CODES Reading List (Shortlist — 2023)
Pages
208
ISBN
0593419332 / 9780593419335