Tilo, an immigrant from India, runs a spice shop in Oakland, California. While she supplies the 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, she catches a glimpses of the local Indian expatriate community. To each, Tilo dispenses wisdom and the appropriate spice: for the restoration of sight, the cleaning of evil, the pain of rejection. But when a lonely American ventures into the store, a troubled Tilo cannot find the correct spice, for he arouses in her forbidden desire - which if she follows will destroy her magical powers...

"A marvelous combination of myth and romance, social critique and poetry" ~ San Francisco Chronicle.

Published: 2005 (originally published 1997)
Pages: 360
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Black Swan Books, UK