Man

Man has three mothers: the one who gave birth to her, the nun who took her in and her beloved Maman, whose life was irrevocably upended by war. When Man is of age, she marries a Vietnamese restaurateur who now lives in Montreal. Discovering that she is a natural chef, Man quietly practices her art, with food as her medium. She creates dishes that are suffused with memory and emotion, that evoke place and time and that even bring her customers to tears...Man is a mystery - while her name means 'perfect fulfilment,' she lives to serve others. She and her husband have a respectful and distant relationship. She is the still centre of a growing community, a motley collection of expatriate Vietnamese and natives of her adopted city. But when circumstances propel her outside of her circle, an insistent and forbidden love takes hold of her and transforms her forever...Full of indelible images of beauty, delicacy and power, 'Man 'is a novel that demands to be savoured for its language, its passion and its love of life.