Product Description

Tilo, an immigrant from India, runs an Indian spice shop in Oakland, California. While she dispenses the classic ingredients for curries and kormas, she also helps her customers to gain a more precious commodity: whatever they most desire. For Tilo is a Mistress of Spices, a priestess of the secret, magical powers of spices. Through those who visit and revisit her shop - Ahuja's wife, caught in an unhappy, abusive marriage; Jagjit, the victim of racist attacks at school; the noisy bougainvillaea girls, rejecting the strict upbringing of their tradition-bound Indian parents; Haroun who drives a taxi and dreams the American dream - we get a glimpse into the life of the local Indian expatriate community. To each Tilo dispenses wisdom and the appropriate spice: coriander for sight; turmeric to erase wrinkles; cinnamon for finding friends; fenugreek to make a rejected wife desirable again; chillies for the cleansing of evil. But when a lonely American comes into the store, a troubled Tilo cannot find the right spice, for he arouses in her a forbidden desire, and following her own desires will destroy her magical powers. Compelling and lyrical, full of heady scents and with more than a touch of humour, this novel explores the clash between East and West even as it unveils the universal mysteries of the human heart.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1232131 in Books
• Published on: 1998-02-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 317 pages

Amazon.com Review
On a mythic island of women "where on our skin, the warm rain fell like pomegranate seeds" powerful spices like cinnamon, turmeric, and fenugreek whisper their secrets to young acolytes. Ordained after trial by fire, each new spice mistress is sent to a far-off land to cure the life pains of all Indian seekers, while keeping a cool distance from the mortals. Only stubborn, passionate Tilo, disguised as an old woman merchant in present-day Oakland, California, fails to heed the vengeful spices' warnings. Fragrant with spice and sensuality, this winning tale rolls off the tongue. Written in the soaring, poetic tradition of China Men and Haroun and the Sea of Stories.

From Library Journal
Divakaruni, author of the award-winning short story collection Arranged Marriage (Anchor, 1995), has crafted a fine first novel that makes a smooth transition to the audio format. Tilo, proprietress of the Spice Bazaar in Oakland, California, is not the elderly Indian woman she appears to be. Trained as a mistress of spices, she evokes the magical powers of the spices of her homeland to help her customers. These customers, mostly first- or second-generation immigrants, are struggling to adapt their Old World ideals to the unfamiliar and often unkind New World. Though trapped in an old woman's body and forbidden to leave the store, Tilo is unable to keep the required distance from her patrons' lives. Her yearning to join the world of mortals angers the spices, and Tilo must face the dire consequences of her disobedience. Divakaruni, whose conversational style translates well into audio, blends social commentary and romance into an eloquent novel of the human condition. With superb narration from Sarita Choudhury, this production is highly recommended for all fiction collections.?Beth Farrell, Portage Cty. Dist. Lib., Ohio
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Daivakaruni's debut story collection, Arranged Marriages (1995), inspired high praise, and her first novel, which uses romance as a conduit to explore more serious matters of the soul, will win her even greater acclaim. Mythical and mystical, Mistress of Spices is reminiscent of fables and fairy tales. It revolves around the age-old magic of spices, which are imbued with powers as complexly spiritual as India itself, the birthplace of Divakaruni and her fearless heroine, Tilo. Clairvoyant from birth, Tilo eagerly learns the secrets of spices and becomes, in essence, a nun, wedded to these miraculous substances and devoted to the art of healing. She works her gentle magic in a tiny, rundown shop in Oakland, California, hidden within the body of an old woman. The spices are harsh taskmasters, and Tilo's life is limited until her rebelliousness reasserts itself, and she becomes involved in the lives of her troubled customers. She falls in love with Raven, the quintessential romantic hero--dashing, handsome, rich, and brooding--but Raven actually embodies nothing less than the great spirit of the American Indian. As the wild story of their unlikely ardor unfolds, Divakaruni draws evocative parallels between the racism and violence immigrants from India face in the U.S. and the tragic conquest of Native Americans. The story Divakaruni tells is transporting, but it is her gift for metaphor that makes this novel live and breathe, its pages as redolent as any freshly ground spice. Donna Seaman

Customer Reviews

More than expected
This book was a very satisfying read. Using lyrical prose, the author tells her protagonist's story in past and present. I've noticed other reviewers have commented on how artificial the book's narrative seemed, but I thought it was beautiful. It felt like the story was being told directly to you, making the story more immediate (for me at least). Although the story is told through the protagonist's association with Indian spices, its not only about Indian and Indian-American perspectives and issues. The author does a wonderful job using this setting for her story but it can be told in any cultural context I think. But in using this context, she effectively shows that (what white Americans consider) "ethnic subcultures" experience the same trials of life everyone else on the world does. Generational misunderstanding and racial intolerance are a few of the problems her characters encounter, but not in an especially overblown or melodramatic way. The story is told emotionally, but that's because it is in first person narrative. In this sense I agree with other reviewers that women may enjoy it more than men. My husband also agrees, but thought the story was compelling nonetheless.

Altogether I felt this was a gorgeous and modern usage of fantasy, emotion and cultural representation. I doubt it will change your life forever, but its consciousness and beauty has really touched me.

(PS: if you want to learn more about Indian spices buy a cookbook, this is fiction)

Beguiling, mysterious and romantic.......
I picked up this book after hearing that it would soon be adapted into a film starring Aishwarya Rai (as Tilo) and Dylan McDermott (as Doug aka Raven).

Having recently 'discovered' India and Ms. Rai in the delicious film "Bride and Prejudice" and having just returned from a trip to San Francisco, I became intrigued by the plot of this book: an immortal Indian woman, Tilo, has the power to manipulate spices in order to help others. She keeps a shop in Oakland, CA, and administers the spices to those who ask for help. She is faced with a dilemma, however, when she meets the mysterious American, Raven...should she stay true to her purpose and remain immortal or give up everything for the man she loves?

More than just a story of choices, sacrifice and love, several wonderful characters also populate this novel:
- Haroun, the taxi driver who dreams of 'making it' big in America;
- Geeta, the young woman who faces opposition and estrangement from her family when she falls in love with wrong man;
- Geeta's grandfather, who at first opposes Geeta but later relents and tries to rebuild the relationships within his family;
- Lalita who is trapped in a loveless marriage with her brute of a husband;
- Jagjit, a promising young man who makes friends with the 'wrong crowd;'
- Hameeda, a single mother who secretly yearns for love;

..and, of course, there is Tilo - a young woman trapped in the body of an elderly woman who has the power to help those around her. Her fate becomes entwined with Raven, a young man with a secret past and who is the only person who sees Tilo for what she really is.

I breezed through this book and could hardly put it down. By the end I wished it would go on and on. Though the story does have a conclusion (and doesn't leave you hanging like other books), I just wanted Tilo's story to continue. Finishing it was like saying goodbye to an old friend. I applaud Ms. Divakaruni for creating such memorable and endearing characters and for effortlessly weaving fantasy and reality in one entertaining story.

I highly recommend this book to romantics everywhere and I'm looking forward to seeing the finished film. I am optimistic that the talented Aishwarya Rai and Dylan McDermott will do justice to Ms. Divakaruni's fabulous prose.

A wonderfully written novel--do not miss this one!
The Mistress of Spices is written with a masterful mix of flights of fancy combined with everyday grittiness. The author, Chirtra Banerjee Divakaruni mixes her images with the same skill as an Indian housewife her special masala curry mix--unique, complex, and delicious.

The story is a fable-like tale of a Mistress of Spices, a woman trained in the art of using the everyday spices of Indian cooking and Ayurvedic medicine to solve the spiritual crises of daily life; family troubles, heartbreak, loss. But the Mistress herself must conform to a rigid code of behavior that is in constant conflict with the passions that surround her. Tilo, the Mistress who plies her craft in a dusty, typically Indian grocery store in Oakland, CA, is empathetic with the passions she heals with her spices. Maybe too empathic--and the price she might have to pay is very high.

The outcome of the novel is touching and the entire books is a wonderful movement from the mythic to the real. If you liked the novel Like Water for Chocolate, you will love this book.