Simple Recipes: Stories - Softcover

The seven stories in Simple Recipes, 26-year-old Madeleine Thien's debut collection, show an imaginative depth and sympathetic wisdom beyond her years. The title story is a deceptively simple tale of a girl remembering how her father used to cook rice: sorting and cleaning, then measuring the water by resting the tip of his index finger on the surface of the rice so that the water reached the bend of his first knuckle. Her father impresses his young daughter with the dexterous way in which he magically transforms a few ingredients into something that satisfies basic needs and sustains life. When those same skillful hands turn violent, though, and beat her rebellious older brother, the daughter struggles to hold onto the memory of the kitchen ritual she shared with her father as it shatters into metaphors for abuse, intolerance, and shame.

Another story, "Alchemy," conveys a complex friendship between school-age girls, as one seeks to understand love and the other contends with an eating disorder and sexual abuse at home. The dynamic between these girls is subtly described and never overstated. Revelations, when they come, are as startling, complex, and mysterious as in real life. Thien is a genuine talent to watch. --Nigel Hunt

Winner of the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and the City of Vancouver Book Award, and a Regional Finalist for the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book

Longing, familiarity, and hope suffuse these stories as they mine the charged territory of relationships ? subtly weaving in conflicts between generations and cultures. Madeleine Thien?s characters in some way want to make amends, to understand the events that have shaped their lives. A young woman searches back in time for the pivotal moment when her family lost faith in itself. Two sisters keep a vigil outside their former house, hoping their long-absent mother will appear one last time. A wife helps her husband grieve for the woman he has loved since childhood. A daughter remembers the simple ritual she once shared with her father and the moment when her unconditional love for him was called into question. Compassionate and revealing, delicate and wise, these stories chart the uneven progress of love and lay bare the heartbreaking truths at the core of our closest bonds.