The Book of Salt

'The Book of Salt reminded me of how thrilling really fine writing can be, and how rarely one sees it' Sarah Waters

It is beautifully written, a cooking up of love and self to feed the devouring appetites of Gerturde Stein and Alice B. Toklas that is nothing less than a masterpiece of delicate and -naturally- existentialist hedonism.

The Book of Salt reminded me of how thrilling really fine writing can be, and how rarely one sees it

Monique Truong was born and raised in Vietnam, and moved to the US after the fall of Saigon.  She was an intellectual property attorney in New York, but now devotes herself full-time to writing.  Her short fiction and essays have been taught in universities across America.  This is her first novel.

In a compelling novel that takes the reader on a strange journey from Indochina to Paris, the Vietnamese cook for Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas reveals his own fascinating story-Paris, 1934. Binh has accompanied his employers to the station for their departure to America. His own destination is unclear: will he go with his 'Mesdames', stay in France, or return to his native Vietnam? Binh fled his homeland in disgrace, leaving behind his malevolent charlatan of a father and his self-sacrificing mother. For five years, he has been the personal cook at the famous apartment on the rue de Fleurs. Binh is a lost soul, an exile and an alien, a man of musings, memories and possibly lies- Tastes, oceans, sweat, tears - The Book of Salt is a an inspired novel about food and exile, love and betrayal.

Monique Truong

A mouthwateringly delicious read; it also snaps with irresistible wit. This could have remained a slender coming-of-age tale. In fact, it develops into one of real substance

Family secrets, first love and teen betrayals all make up the novel's classic menu

Piercingly eloquent...richly drawn characters...captivating pace

Southern cadences resonate, imbuing Bitter In The Mouth with a warmth and wit that form a perfect foil for the Southern gothic undercurrents that propel it towards its gorgeous, heart-warming resolution

A revelation of wit and heart and stunning talent. Truong shades her classic coming of age tale with a magical ferocity that recalls Doctorow and Nabokov....a soulful hymn to the hands we fashion with the cards we're dealt

Truong's pen is a scalpel, laying perfect words down along that nerve until even the happiest reader understands what it means to forever stand apart from your family and the larger society you inhabit...The novel's end is neither bitter nor sweet, but the perfect combination of both

If you liked The Shaking Woman by Siri Hustvedt, you'll love Bitter in the Mouth by Monique Truong... a tale of friendship, loyalty, love, family, and above all, the mysteries that make us who we are

With a heroine who literally eats words, Truong is amply aware of the power of them... she wields her narrative like a quarterstaff, knocking readers' expectations right out from under them

Monique Truong creates a world so subtle, mysterious, moving and sensory that it heightens our consciousness of those qualities in our own. Bitter in the Mouth is the rare novel that makes one life story unique and universal at the same time

Be prepared for a full range of tastes of life in Bitter in the Mouth: friendship, loyalty, love, family, and above all, the mysteries at every corner of one's history that make us who we are. Monique Truong is a great observer and a beautiful writer

Growing up in Boiling Springs, North Carolina, in the '70s and '80s, Linda Hammerick knows that she is different. She has strong, almost paralysing associations between words and tastes; she doesn't look like everyone else; and she isn't popular at school. She finds her way through life with the help of her great uncle 'Baby' Harper, who loves her and loves to dance, and her best friend fat-thin-fat Kelly with whom she has been exchanging letters since they were seven. But then a tragedy and a revelation will make her question everything she thought she knew about herself and her family.

Monique Truong

Praise for Bitter In The Mouth

A mouthwateringly delicious read; it also snaps with irresistible wit. This could have remained a slender coming-of-age tale. In fact, it develops into one of real substance

Family secrets, first love and teen betrayals all make up the novel's classic menu

Piercingly eloquent...richly drawn characters...captivating pace

A mouthwateringly delicious read; it also snaps with irresistible wit. This could have remained a slender coming-of-age tale. In fact, it develops into one of real substance

Family secrets, first love and teen betrayals all make up the novel's classic menu

Piercingly eloquent...richly drawn characters...captivating pace

A mouthwateringly delicious read; it also snaps with irresistible wit. This could have remained a slender coming-of-age tale. In fact, it develops into one of real substance

Family secrets, first love and teen betrayals all make up the novel's classic menu

Piercingly eloquent...richly drawn characters...captivating pace

Books by Monique Truong

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