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Cover of Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

Like Water for Chocolate

  • 246 pages · about 4 hours
  • First published 1989
  • 83 editions

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1 About this book

Like Water for Chocolate (Spanish: Como agua para chocolate) is a novel by Mexican novelist and screenwriter Laura Esquivel.

The novel follows the story of a young girl named Tita, who longs for her lover, Pedro, but can never have him because of her mother's upholding of the family tradition: the youngest daughter cannot marry, but instead must take care of her mother until she dies. Tita is only able to express herself when she cooks.

Esquivel employs magical realism to combine the supernatural with the ordinary throughout the novel.

The novel won the American Booksellers Book of the Year Award for Adult Trade in 1994.

Good for readers who want: magical realism and a love story.

  • Magical Realism
  • Family life
  • Relationships
  • Romance
  • Mexico
  • Violence
  • Passion
  • Food

2 About Laura Esquivel

Born 1950

Laura Beatriz Esquivel Valdés (born 30 September 1950) is a Mexican novelist, screenwriter and former politician. Her first novel Como agua para chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate) became a bestseller in Mexico and the United States, and was later developed into an award-winning film.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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