When I picked up this culinary themed novel, I was not expecting the deep, rich read that it offered up. Told from three different perspectives, the story is as much about the exhausting pursuit of culinary perfection as it is about the fascinating connection between food and love. Here  are a couple of my favourite excerpts.

There was one thing that made my mother truly happy: food. In New Hampshire, to save money, she turned off the heat and kept on the oven while she made four varieties of roasted beet soup. She wore pomegranate perfume. At the supermarket, she was like an ant building a hill. At night she slept with yoghurt and honey on her face.

Food was my mother’s life. Sometimes, I wondered if she’d married my father because of his last name: Seltzer. Her maiden name wasn’t really her own. She was adopted. So she took a last name that represented the only part of herself that felt true: food. And seltzer was her secret to delicate crepes, the perfect French onion tart, and fried chicken that actually glittered. (page 17, without permission)

She smiled like she couldn’t help it, and because of that I knew. I knew why she loved the masgouf. And why she loved that recipe, despite her chef-y-ness. I knew why she was always scanning the obituaries. I knew why she was so lonely-not only because of what was inside her, splintered like dried out marzipan where all the joy could slip through, but because Joseph and Victoria were out in the world, not-dying without her. They were making beautiful, delicious food. The only way she could love them, I thought, was for her to eat it and hope that it would fill her up. (226, without permission)

Through a layered story of complicated relationships, Tomorrow there will be Apricots is about accepting and forgiving the persons that we love. The tale is important, significant and beautifully told.

Kath’s quote: “And that’s what love is, I suppose. The one thing that is most worth hoping for, and the one thing that’s most surprising when it lands. Because it’s better. It exceeds hope, makes hope nearsighted.”
― Jessica Soffer, Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots    

Love never fails.

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