The #1 Indie Next Pick, in the vein of the classic 84, Charing Cross Road and Meet Me at the Museum, this witty and tender novel follows two women in 1960s America as they discover that food really does connect us all, and that friendship and laughter are the best medicine.

When twenty-seven-year-old Joan Bergstrom sends a fan letter–as well as a gift of saffron–to fifty-nine-year-old Imogen Fortier, a life-changing friendship begins. Joan lives in Los Angeles and is just starting out as a writer for the newspaper food pages. Imogen lives on Camano Island outside Seattle, writing a monthly column for a Pacific Northwest magazine, and while she can hunt elk and dig for clams, she’s never tasted fresh garlic–exotic fare in the Northwest of the sixties. As the two women commune through their letters, they build a closeness that sustains them through the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of President Kennedy, and the unexpected in their own lives.

Food and a good life—they can’t be separated. It is a discovery the women share, not only with each other, but with the men in their lives. Because of her correspondence with Joan, Imogen’s decades-long marriage blossoms into something new and exciting, and in turn, Joan learns that true love does not always come in the form we expect it to. Into this beautiful, intimate world comes the ultimate test of Joan and Imogen’s friendship—a test that summons their unconditional trust in each other.

A brief respite from our chaotic world, Love & Saffron is a gem of a novel, a reminder that food and friendship are the antidote to most any heartache, and that human connection will always be worth creating.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

I have simply always had an interest in people from other countries. I like the way their kitchens smell.

I have no idea what to do with Sex and the Single Girl. The girls at the paper are chirping with excitement about it. I find it embarrassing. I do not like the presumption that there is only one way for me to be an unmarried, twenty-seven-year-old female. Apparently, I should aspire to something called a “sexth sense,” and places where I should make an effort to meet eligible men include Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. As if I have any interest in spending my life drinking Chablis alone.

 The world is big, small, and gloriously astonishing all at once!

That is the first time I have written his name in my own hand. It makes my heart feel as vulnerable as a dandelion in a windstorm.

I felt thoroughly uncultured as we walked through the Huntington galleries. She knows so much about art. And I didn’t dare open my mouth when she played her opera records. Don’t tell her, but it sounded to me like a box of howling cats.

 My Review:

This was a quick, gentle, slow and easy, relaxing, thoughtfully written, delightfully amusing, and engaging read that tapped all the feels in the best way possible. The writing was easy to fall into while poignant, historically accurate, and heart-squeezing. The writing was honest and truly moving while a supportive relationship was developing between two women through their pen and paper correspondence over food that spanned several years and only one face-to-face meeting. The women easily established a bond that allowed them to freely expose their innermost fears and bare themselves on paper as they could to no one else in their lives. Their words plumbed all the feels and put hot rocks in my throat and stung my eyes as well as lifted my spirits. Kim Fay has gifted us with a tasty treat and a delicious tale for all the senses.