Skip to content
Surf Wiki
Save to docs
arts

From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Mistress of Spices

1997 novel by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni


Summary

1997 novel by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

FieldValue
nameThe Mistress of Spices
imagemistress of spices.jpg
captionFirst edition
authorChitra Banerjee Divakaruni
cover_artistCathleen Toelke
countryUnited States
languageEnglish
genreNovel
publisherDoubleday
release_date6 February 1997
media_typePrint (hardback & paperback)
pages317 pp (first edition, hardback)
isbn0-385-40769-6
isbn_note(first edition, hardback)
oclc36761021

The Mistress of Spices, (1997), set in contemporary Oakland, California, is a novel by Indian American writer and University of Houston Creative Writing Program professor Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.

Plot

Tilo, the titular character, is a shopkeeper born in India and trained in magic, who helps customers satisfy their needs and desires with the mystical properties of spices. Her life changes when she falls for an American man named Raven, whom the book strongly implies is Native American. Unfortunately, she chooses to disregard the rules of her training in her pursuit of romance and her decision to seek out customers outside her shop, which results in the spices inflicting punishment on her and those she cares about. To save Raven from being another victim of the spices' powerful magic, she decides to leave him after one last night where they make love. Afterwards, she accepts the punishment for disregarding the rules of her training, which results in the store being destroyed in an earthquake. She survives, and she and Raven reconcile and decide to help rebuild the shop.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

Main article: The Mistress of Spices (film)

The film The Mistress of Spices, based on the novel, was released in 2005. It is directed by Paul Mayeda Berges, with a script by Berges and his wife, British filmmaker Gurinder Chadha. The film stars Aishwarya Rai and Dylan McDermott.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Mistress of Spices — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report