The Book of Salt

"[He] came to us through an advertisement that I had in desperation put in the newspaper. It began captivatingly for those days: 'Two American ladies wish . . .' "

In Paris, in 1934, Binh has accompanied his employers, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, to the train station for their departure to America. His own future is unclear: remain in France, go with "the Steins", or return to his native Vietnam? A lost soul, he is a late-night habitu of the Paris demimonde, an exile and an alien, a man of musings and memories, and, possibly, lies. His mesmerizing narrative catapults us back to his youth in French-colonized Vietnam, his years as a galley hand at sea, and his days turning out fragrant repasts for the doyennes of the Lost Generation. 

Author: Monique Truong

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Released Date: 2003

ISBN: 9780618304004