Lush and visual, chock-full of delicious recipes, Roselle Lim´s magical debut novel is about food, heritage, and finding family in the most unexpected places.
At the news of her mother´s death, Natalie Tan returns home. The two women hadn´t spoken since Natalie left in anger seven years ago, when her mother refused to support her chosen career as a chef. Natalie is shocked to discover the vibrant neighborhood of San Francisco´s Chinatown that she remembers from her childhood is fading, with businesses failing and families moving out. She´s even more surprised to learn she has inherited her grandmother´s restaurant.
The neighborhood seer reads the restaurant´s fortune in the leaves: Natalie must cook three recipes from her grandmother´s cookbook to aid her struggling neighbors before the restaurant will succeed. Unfortunately, Natalie has no desire to help them try to turn things around--she resents the local shopkeepers for leaving her alone to take care of her agoraphobic mother when she was growing up. But with the support of a surprising new friend and a budding romance, Natalie starts to realize that maybe her neighbors really have been there for her all along.