Tomorrow There Will be Apricots

I loved this book!! Jessica Soffer wrote these characters so well, that I was completely committed to them right away. I loved how vulnerable they were and so unsure of themselves until they found each other. The story was sad and sweet and beautiful. A story of love and redemption for sure! Can't wait to see what else Jessica Soffer has to offer in the future!

This is the story of two Iraqui Jewish women. Apart from that, they may not seem to have much in common. One is elderly and has just lost her husband, the love of her life. The other one is only 14 years old and falling in love for the first time. Cooking brings them together but it is the empty spaces in their hearts that make them reach out to each other and whisper, "Please stay."

"Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots" may revolve around food, but hunger--emotional hunger, is its centerpiece. The widow, Victoria, lives with the regret of having given up her child for adoption and thus denied her husband the joy of being a parent while the teenager, Lorca, only lives in the hope and for the day her self-absorbed mother will bestow her love on her. Author Jessica Soffer very effectively communicates the world of pain these two characters inhabit. Even Ms. Soffer's beautiful metaphors cannot soften (for the readers) the raw feelings Victoria and Lorca have to deal with. Lorca's story is especially heartbreaking and if any readers feel like grabbing Lorca's mother by the shoulders, shaking her and slapping her in the face, I am with them. And if they feel like reaching through the page to hold Lorca's hand in order to stop her from putting the razor blade to her arm, I can say I was there too. That's how powerful Ms. Soffer's portrayals are in this book.

"Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots" is not a syrupy, feel-good book. For some readers, the vivid descriptions of Lorca's self-inflicted harm may be too much. For others, Victoria's internal dialogues may feel like a drag. But these two characters, these two women feel real in their reflections of anger, grief, vulnerability, love and ultimate forgiveness.

I really loved the characters in this and whilst I didn't always like their choices, I did find myself liking them and caring deeply for them. Their difficult experiences are shared gently and in some ways are all the more powerful for that. The relationships that unfold are often challenging and remind us how we sometimes hurt those we love the most. I really desperately wanted a bit of happiness for both Lorca and Victoria, our two principal characters; whether I got it you will have to read for yourself to see!
There are stories left unfinished and I was left wanting to know a bit more about the lovely Blot and his background as well as the unfortunate Dottie!
A lovely read; emotional, moving but also beautiful.

the writing of this story is very moving and woven together very carefully. Although alot of the time the permeating sadness that envelopes the book was almost unbearable.Still it asks some great questions and the writing is so eloquent and pretty you can't look away. Does it makes you a bad person to throw away someone's things out right after they have passed? Do we ever really know ourselves truly and the people around us ? The descriptions of food will make you so hungry and really help to lighten things. Victoria gives all kinds of tips about cooking. Especially Iraqi jewish cooking , which I never heard of. Most of the characters are drawn very carefully and have real problems and really grow as characters. You can't help but care for them and hope their lives gets better. Victoria's voice was so clear I could hear what she sounded like in my head.I liked when she kept talking/sometimes arguing with her late husband . Some of those arguments/one sided conversations were pretty funny.

An interesting novel about elderly Jewish Iraqi woman Victoria living in New York City and a young girl named Lorca who is prone to self-mutilation that leads to her being expelled from school. Victoria grives the death of her husband Joseph. Lorca on the other hand cannot get over her parents' divorce and her mother's emotional distance.

Victoria looks for the way to recapture days of when she and Joseph held a family restaurant and decides to start cooking classes at her home. Lorca is looking for ways to become closer to her mother, who is a chef, and wants to learn how to make masgouf, (Iraqi national) dish her mother craves.

Midway throught the book I thought that book is going to have predictable ending, but I was delighted to find out that author changed the course and found different way to end the book. The idea of sharing affection (and sometimes love) between people through food and cooking is not new. That is why I give this book only three stars - I did not find it particularly original.

Lorca, Victoria and Blot, three damaged people, populate this novel that touches on Iraq, cutting and drug addiction leavened by lies, secrets and poor parenting. Ultimately hopeful, the book drags a bit after many chapters of discouraged, depressed people. I was happy to see the end.
The three main characters, Lorca’s mother and Victoria’s “best friend” Dottie are all clearly drawn. Each is likeable except for Lorca’s mother who is clearly the villain. Joseph, the only other character, is not so well developed and plays an important, though minor, role.
Cutting and food are also main characters. I learned much about the whys of cutting, coming away with a very sympathetic and empathetic view of those who suffer from this scary disease. Food offers the much needed lightness. Iraqi dishes are presented and prepared by Lorca and Victoria. One recipe is given. I would have liked to have others – the descriptions had my mouth watering!
Because I feel the book is too long, only 3 of 5 stars.

Lorca the fourteen year old center of TOMORROW THERE WILL BE APRICOTS was named for the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca who penned the line "Can you see the wound I carry from my throat to my heart?" Several themes and motifs in TOMORROW THERE WILL BE APRICOTS are seemingly influenced by this tragic writer's works.

Lorca the young New York City namesake of the poet has a psychological disorder in which she purposely hurts herself because as in her own words "It (cutting) felt better....Better than nothing." Lorca seems to have such an emptiness in her soul because of the coldness of her destructive mother Nance and her estrangement from her father whom her mother views with contempt. After Lorca is caught self harming at school her mother arranges to send her to boarding school. Lorca devises a scheme in which she will cook the Iraqi seafood dish Masgouf in hopes of impressing her mother a professional chef so much that she will change her mind about sending her daughter to boarding school. During a quest to find a recipe for the dish Lorca meets an elderly recently widowed Iraqi Jewish woman Victoria. Victoria and Lorca soon form an unlikely bond which precipitates changes in both their lives.

I enjoyed TOMORROW THERE WILL BE APRICOTS though it is a far from perfect book. There are some plot turns that seem unlikely though the author stops short of tying things up in the predictable way many chick lit book authors would choose. The information about the lives (and cultural foods and traditions) of Iraqi Jews before World War II is interesting and well integrated in to the plot. A subplot about a friend of Lorca's named Blot is not as meaningful as it could be. All in all though TOMORROW THERE WILL BE APRICOTS is well rendered especially for a first time author.

Lorca, a teenage girl whose self-mutilations are less painful for her to endure than her mother's lack of affection and concern, desperately yearns for her mother's love and does everything she can to please a woman who can't be satisfied.
In an attempt to recreate her mother's favorite dish, Masgouf, Lorca seeks out, with the help of her one friend, Blot, someone who can help her. Lorca engaged in an exhaustive search for this recipe, and finally located the woman who owned the restaurant where her mother ate her favorite dish. In finding the owner, Victoria, Lorca believes she also located her grandmother, who had put her mother up for adoption the day she was born. Both Lorca and Victoria have led lives of quiet desperation, so that with little research, they both believe they are long lost relatives. What connects them is their longing for connection, rather than any rational evidence that they are related.
Soffer quietly brings you inside the feelings of both Lorca and Victoria. I have never understood the pain of someone who self-mutilates. Soffer did an excellent job showing you how and why it can happen.

Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots has many beautifully written passages but was much darker than I expected.

Lorca, age 14 but much older in spirit, is facing enrollment in boarding school after being caught cutting herself in her school bathroom (after years of self-harm). She has a few weeks of free time and decides that if she can replicate her mother's favorite meal, her mother will decide to keep her at home. Lorca has been trying to win her mother's approval, attention and affection for years but doesn't seem to have made much progress with her mother. The mother is a well-regarded chef and selfish narcissist whose treatment of Lorca borders on neglect. Lorca's father is largely absent from her life and is still pining for his ex-wife. She has no friends except for an older teenager who works in a bookstore and takes an interest in her because she reminds him of his younger sister. A former drug addict, he is mostly estranged from his family.

The author delves into Lorca's self-harm, writing of the urges to hurt herself and the relief she finds in it in a way that nearly romanticizes it: "There was the slant of the razor, the pressure, my skin, my tissue, my bone, the counting of something like seconds or heartbeats or steps up a staircase or times that my eyes blinked that became the rhythm, the sound, the rhythm, the sound, the song of it. And then, when it was about to hurt terribly - it took a while -when it felt that my body had been thinned out to something like stockings swinging on a clothesline, I forgot everything. Everything forgot me. Everything escaped and convened at the sting, at that one sensation, but it was so much more than that. It was like my body had evaporated and reappeared at that one single spot. I'd condensed. I was a tiny drop of red liquid, shimmering like a butterfly's wing up close."

The other main character is Victoria, an elderly Iraqi immigrant, who loses her husband early in the book. (NOTE: She is described as a widow on the back of the book so I am not revealing any surprises). While stricken with grief over her husband's death (after a long and painful battle with prostrate cancer), she reflects back on their brief courtship and long marriage. The greatest challenge to their marriage was her desire to give up their baby for adoption despite her husband's desire to be a father. Several chapters are told by her late husband Joseph's point of view so that we come to know their relationship from both perspectives.

The author describes in detail the aches and sour smells of advancing age, the regrets and the fears. She spent more pages than I would have liked on Dottie, Victoria's annoying upstairs neighbor. While it is revealed that Dottie played a larger role in the story of Victoria and Joseph than we expect, I would have been happier if Victoria hadn't detailed the many ways she is annoyed by this neighbor, who is a friend only by default and convenience.

Victoria and Lorca meet after Dottie convinces Victoria to teach cooking lessons (which was not thoroughly believable given what the reader knows of Victoria's personality and mindset at the time). Both lonely and nearly friendless, they form a fragile bond. They both begin to suspect they are drawn to each other for another reason: could the baby Victoria gave up be Lorca's mother?

This is not a book I will read again. I expected it more like a memoir on cooking than an interesting (and unexpected) glimpse into the compulsion of self-harm and the indignities of old age.

Jessica Soffer writes beautifully and so well, in fact, that the reader absorbs her characters' depression as easily as potatoes cooked in insufficiently heated oil. Despite the fine writing and story telling, I did not want to finish this book, but I did (for the purpose of reviewing it).

SPOILER ALERT--This story deals with a 14 year old girl who has been so hurt emotionally that, she needs to physically abuse herself to find relief. With a mother and aunt who are self absorbed and verbally abusive and an absent father, this pathetic child clings to hope that a stranger is really her grandmother.

If you can read and distance your feelings, you will enjoy TOMORROW THERE WILL BE APRICOTS. If not, be prepared to suffer right along with Lorca, our young heroine.

While I read an Uncorrected Proof, I'm aware that, changes may be made prior to the final proofing and printing. Keeping that in mind I can't understand why TOMORROW THERE WILL BE APRICOTS cover's art portrays citrus fruit.

Soffer is extremely talented and I look forward to more of her (hopefully, less depressing) books in the future.

***May contain spoilers****
Our book club selected this book after NPR reviewed it so highly. I read half of the book before I couldn't take any more of it and skimmed the rest. I'm really glad I did, because it went from bad to worse.

There is so much I hated about this book, I don't know where to begin. First is the glamorization of self-harm. Lorca is a cutter and at her lowest point, two people swoop in to save her. When I was a teen, I had a good friend who was a cutter. This is not what happens. Books like this teach you that people will respond to your cry for help. They don't. I watched my friend lose all her friends. I watched her boyfriend dump her. I saw her family put her in a mental institution so she could get treatment for her severe depression. When you cut or otherwise hurt yourself, the people you love won't swoop in to dress your wounds and give you unconditional love. Instead they alienate you and push you away because they don't know how to cope with the crazy thing you are doing. I'm so sick of books portraying self-harm as a way to get people to nurse and coddle you. That is not what happens in reality.

The other thing that ticked me off about this book was that every single one of the female characters was so weak. The mother was cold and heartless. Lorca and Victoria were numb and afraid of everything. Dottie was a ditz. It was so boring! So much of the book involved the writer droning on and on about how afraid Lorca and Victoria were of everything. We get it. But it's not endearing.

I also am a bit flummoxed by all the praise I've seen for this writer. She does know how to describe things in pretty ways, but there were some major plot holes in this book. Why Victoria gave up her baby never made sense. Why Blot cared about Lorca was never explained (he's 19, she's a meek 14 year-old). Why Joseph cheated was never explained. And seriously, are we really supposed to believe that Victoria never suspected Joseph of cheating, despite the fact that Dottie was always around and Joseph insisted that Victoria take care of her after his death? This book needed 100 less pages devoted to describing Lorca and Victoria's minute fears, and 100 more pages devoted to developing the backstory on these characters.

I think the author has promise. She does know how to craft a pretty sentence and work in metaphors. But she needs to work on stepping back and looking at the big picture - are these characters endearing? Are they believable? Do people understand why the characters are acting the way they are? If she can do this in future books, she might nail her next attempt at writing.

I am 30 percent into this book and already skipping pages. I can't get into these characters at all. i can't recommend this book. it does not have an easy flow but stops and starts and almost sputters. I found it uninteresting enough that I probably won't finish it.

I was totally captivated by this story. Each chapter is told from either Lorca, Victoria or Joseph. It's a story of a teenage daughter that desperately wants love & attention from her mother. She tries to cook her favorite dishes to please her chef mother. Her parent's are divorced and she's in pain.

Then there's Victoria, an older woman that loses her husband, Joseph. She is adjusting to being a widow & reminiscing about the past, when Lorca comes in to her life.

The descriptions of preparing the food were enticing-making my mouth water. So many great detailed lovely descriptions throughout. i.e. "Her dark hair was pulled into a bun, shiny like swirled chocolate butter sauce." I enjoyed the stories from these characters and it all melds together as a wonderfully written story.

Highly recommended.

Jessica Soffer is a gifted writer--it's evident on every page of Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots. And I really wanted to like the book, as it promised to be poignant and insightful. Not to mention the fact that I've had a number of close friendships with older mother figures in my life, so I thought it would resonate. But as good as Soffer's prose is, I found that too much of the plot was implausible, and there were too many holes. In fact, I was sufficiently disappointed to where I considered not finishing it.

Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots is a book largely about secrets. Lorca, named for the poet, is the 14-year-old daughter of a professional chef--an accomplished cook in her own right but deeply troubled and prone to cutting herself and other forms of self-mutilation. Her mother is self-absorbed and nasty; her father, from whom her mother is separated, is ineffectual and far away in New Hampshire. Victoria, an Iraqi Jewish immigrant, is (very) recently widowed. She and her late husband, Joseph, had run a popular Middle Eastern restaurant in New York. As a way to distract Victoria from her grief, her meddling upstairs neighbor, Dottie, posts flyers advertising cooking classes at Victoria's apartment. Predictably, Lorca, who overheard her mother raving about an obscure dish called masgouf that she once at at the restaurant, signs up for the classes with the aim of learning how to make it for her mother, thereby gaining her approval and dissuading her from sending her to boarding school. Victoria, in addition to grieving the loss of her husband, has resolved to track down the daughter she gave up for adoption 40 years earlier. Other players in the cast of characters include Blot, Lorca's 19-year-old male friend, who works at a bookstore she frequents, and Lou, her aunt.

Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots has some lovely passages and wise observations, but it doesn't hold together as a cohesive story, in my opinion. I found the plot contrived, and riddled with questions that never were answered. Why, for instance, was Lorca's mother so hateful? Why would a 19-year-old become friends with a 14-year-old? How could Lorca have become such a good cook when her mother seemed not to care about her, yet clearly must have trained her? How was Lorca planning to pay for the cooking lessons? (This is briefly addressed late in the book, but the answer is never really provided.) And finally, in what universe would Victoria been able to offer cooking classes, even under coercion, just four days after her husband's death? That's just plain unbelievable.

If you're willing to suspend disbelief, you may enjoy the book more than I did. But in the end, I found much of it unpleasant, especially the parts about Lorca harming herself and her mother's verbal abuse, and the resolution at the end less than satisfying. Soffer is clearly a writer to watch, but this book doesn't fulfill her potential.

Teenaged Lorca is desperate to feel love from her mother, a self-absorbed chef. She hopes that preparing wonderful meals for her will help. When overhearing her mother say that the best thing she ever ate was a fish recipe, masgouf, she had at a now closed Iraqi restaurant, Lorca starts a quest to find that recipe so she can make it for her mother.

Her journey introduces her to Victoria, the owner of the restaurant. Victoria is dealing with the recent loss of her husband and yearning to connect with the daughter she gave up for adoption. Lorca and Victoria soon realize that the daughter could be Lorca's mother and they form a special bond.

Lorca deflects her inner pain by self-mutilating - cutting and burning herself. The author handles this horrific action well and did a lot to help me understand the impetus. Her mother has no sympathy or seemingly no interest in understanding why Lorca does such an appalling and dangerous thing and doesn't even seem to care. Without spoiling the book too much, there is a good twist to this at the end that made me understand her mother a little more, but still not like her at all.

This book is wonderfully written. Instead of reading it in a rush, I chose to read a little every night, savoring rather than devouring. The characters are well developed and believable. None are perfect, and not all are likeable. I think I may wonder weeks from now how Lorca is doing and what is going on with her friend and first crush, Blot. If there was a sequel or another book by this author, I would definitely pre-order.

Highly recommended.

An exquisitely wrought book, written by a talented writer with an old soul. Other reviews at this site outline the plot, so there's no need for me to, but I can -- and will -- say that the premise and artful creation of the connection between a self-mutilating teenager seeking to fill the emotional gaps in her life, and a widow seeking to rationalize and atone for her life choices, crosses so many boundaries of human interaction that the reader is left gasping in self-recognition.

The characters in this book are heart wrenching. It is compelling to feel the pain of the young girl and the old woman that have isolated themselves from love by punishing themselves over self loathing secrets. Ultimately, they share their pain and love while creating "slow food".The kitchen has always been my favorite room. Intimacy is shared over peeling onions, slicing lemons, baking cookies or washing dishes. Having the characters come to grips with the lives they have created against the backdrop of lemons being preserved and fresh vanilla pods and rose water being used to bake cookies rang a note of truth to me. I really enjoyed the book and will be reminded that I am eating for happiness each time I eat my yellow fruits and vegetables.

Heres a great novel about women and friendship and family and food. Everything about this one is just yummy. Usually when I read books that alternate between characters I like one character and don't like the other. Happily in this one that didn't happen for me. I truly like both characters.

The writing here is luxurious.. pretty turns of phrases, very poetical. The kind of book you want to read in a bubble bath after a long day at work. The cherry on top is a great story line.

I hate book reviews that ruin the book for me. I don't want to do that to you. but I do want you to read it if you like a good novel.

The jacket copy doesn't do justice to this searing novel about loss and emptiness across three generations of Jewish Iraqi women in Baghdad, New Hampshire and New York City. Unlike so many debut novels, this one doesn't peter out after a few dazzling chapters but gets better as it progresses.

Across the generations food is both a sustainer and metaphor for love and healing, and while the metaphors are a little overdone in the beginning, they improve as the narrative gains force.

As it opens, teenage Lorca has been suspended from her New York City public school after being discovered cutting herself in a bathroom stall. Her mother, an accomplished chef but inconsistent nurturer, threatens to send her to boarding school. Lorca sets out to prove how mistaken she is by making masgouf, an Iraqi dish she's heard her mother extol. At the local bookstore where she goes for research, she meets a clerk who becomes her confidant and soul mate.

Quickly, Lorca connects with Victoria, a recent widow uptown who offers Middle Eastern cooking lessons. The two bond, and independently, they begin to wonder if Lorca's mother could be the child that Victoria gave up for adoption to the displeasure of her husband. Just as it looks as though this might resolve, the author moves away from easy solutions towards a more nuanced view of the role that suffering--both from external circumstances and self-inflicted--plays in our ability to love fully.

A NYC widow and a teenager filling the emptiness in their hearts in this novel told from shifting point of views.
Victoria, an Iraqi Jewish immigrant used to run a restaurant, is struggling with the death of her husband Joseph, and dreaming of their baby given up for adoption despite Joseph's desire to be a father. Several chapters are told from her late husband's point of view. To cope and fill a void she starts teaching cooking lessons.

Teenage Lorca is being sent to boarding school. She has been cutting herself since she was six having never felt love or tenderness from her mother who is a glamorous chef. Her "father" who has no intent in being a father lives in New Hampshire. Lorca is on a mission to win her mother's beloved regard by creating her ideal dinner and dish `masgouf' and in the doing not be sent away.

Lorca and Victoria are kindred spirits connected by their hurting soul and love of cooking and food.

Deeply moving, real and oh so sad

Where was the editor?
* Having a neighbor post flyers for cooking lessons by Victoria, 4 days after Joseph's death, was unbelievable.
* Lorca's mom is integral to the story yet I never knew her as a real person herself.

You can listen to the author read a passage from the novel here:

Henryreview dot org slash reading-tomorrow-there-will-be-apricots-jessica-soffer

I picked up this book because I was doing research on Iraqi foods for my third novel. What I didn't expect was that I wanted to devour this remarkable book as quickly as I could. Believable, heart-breaking characters lovingly portrayed bring home a message of forgiveness (for oneself especially) and concrete hope. The writing blew me away...this author lived in her characters' skin and let us into their hearts and minds. And, as if I couldn't love it more, Soffer shared the recipe for masgouf at the very end. Well done in every way. Georgeann Packard

Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots is a beautifully written book which tells a fascinating story. All of the characters, and especially the main characters of Lorca & Victoria, are richly, wonderfully written. The book switches between the two women's points of view which keeps the story moving along at a quick pace and leaves you curious to know what will happen next with each. Typically it is only traditional mystery novels that I feel like I can't put down, but this book kept me turning the pages to see where the story would take me. This is also a book with a lot of heart and one that stays with you long after the final pages are turned because of the deep feelings you develop for the main characters. I thought that the descriptions of cooking and food in this book were written in a fascinating and delicious way which added an interesting facet to the story & really enhanced the overall narrative. The descriptions of Iraqi- Jewish culture were fascinating as well and I really enjoyed learning about a culture that I had no prior familiarity with. Overall, this book is one of the best novels I have read in a long time and an excellent debut from Jessica Soffer. I will be looking forward to seeing what she writes next.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel about a Lorca, a teenager seeking love and connection from a mother who can't or won't give it to her. Soffer's portrayal of Lorca is very sincere, especially her description of Lorca's use of self harm to cope with her strong emotional responses to her mother's rejection of her. I loved the use of food to as a vehicle for connection. Lorca tries and fails to connect with her mother through the only thing that seems to make her mother happy -- food but is able to find a motherly connection with Victoria through the meals they prepare together. An excellent read!

This book was a real disappointment. Most of the characters were completely unsympathetic and it was hard to like them or care what happened to them. It was never fully explained why a happily married woman would give up her baby or why a 19 year old boy would even give a 14 year old girl a second look. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone..

I was engaged with the main character and there was a twist before the end. The main story had to many words that dragged the story out. Made it hard to keep engaged. Other parts were not described enough or clearly enough. Main characters flaw was hard for me to accept as I have no experience with it.

This sweet novel considers the nature of family (including the friends who become family), the power of acceptance, and the promise of tomorrow. A beautiful story about the connections we need so much and often find by chance.

As other reviewers have told the plot in great detail I won't re-do so here. I will say that I really enjoyed this book- despite having some very graphic self-harm scenes in it. It is very well written and has an excellent intricate plot line and vivid characters that jump right off the pages. (I have to admit the older character of Victoria is a bit more "Real" than the younger character of Lorca, who seems a bit more flat/predictable.) There are a few surprises in this book that I didn't see coming- and really worked well. Overall, this is a book that is very enjoyable, but not one that is universally "happy" in feeling. I would recommend this book to people who like stories about persevering women.

The author writes very well - that should be said up front. I just wish she had chosen to write something a bit more uplifting, as I consider this to be one of the most depressing pieces I've ever read. I found myself feeling unbearably sad for the 14-year-old in the story who was stuck with a toxic mother, an unfeeling aunt and an absent father, and the only reason I finished the book was to see if a crumb of happiness would fall the child's way. I want to give it one star, but it really was well-written. The themes, though, were too grim and depressing. The child's pain was too much for me.

In lyrical, nuanced prose, Soffer tells a moving story about the impact of family on our lives, the importance of cultural inheritance and-- uniquely-- the healing power of food. This is one of the best contemporary novels I've read in years. Different worlds collide through the alternating voices of two Iranian-Jewish women, a self-mutilating adolescent and an elderly widow, both of whom live on Manhattan's upper west side. Through the mouth-watering descriptions of the Middle Eastern recipes they share in a cooking class, we experience the power of love to prevail over loss. As delicate as a single lemon seed carefully placed in an icy glass of vodka, Soffer's words insinuate themselves into our hearts, our minds and our bellies. A tour de force!

I gave the book four stars because it is thought-provoking. It is so subtle in revealing the emotional imbalance of the young girl. Truly a haunting book that makes me look at my relationships and how emotionally responsive I am in them.

Teenaged Lorca is desperate to feel love from her mother, a self-absorbed chef. She hopes that preparing wonderful meals for her will help. When overhearing her mother say that the best thing she ever ate was a fish recipe, masgouf, she had at a now closed Iraqi restaurant, Lorca starts a quest to find that recipe so she can make it for her mother.

Her journey introduces her to Victoria, the owner of the restaurant. Victoria is dealing with the recent loss of her husband and yearning to connect with the daughter she gave up for adoption. Lorca and Victoria soon realize that the daughter could be Lorca's mother and they form a special bond.

Lorca deflects her inner pain by self-mutilating - cutting and burning herself. The author handles this horrific action well and did a lot to help me understand the impetus. Her mother has no sympathy or seemingly no interest in understanding why Lorca does such an appalling and dangerous thing and doesn't even seem to care. Without spoiling the book too much, there is a good twist to this at the end that made me understand her mother a little more, but still not like her at all.

This book is wonderfully written. Instead of reading it in a rush, I chose to read a little every night, savoring rather than devouring. The characters are well developed and believable. None are perfect, and not all are likeable. I think I may wonder weeks from now how Lorca is doing and what is going on with her friend and first crush, Blot. If there was a sequel or another book by this author, I would definitely pre-order.

Highly recommended.