Kal Ma' Lil-shukulata/ Como Agua Para Chocolate/ Like Water for Chocolate

A highly original novel by one of Mexico's most important storytellers, Como agua para chocolate is written in the style of the serialized novels so popular in the nineteenth century. Each chapter starts with a traditional northern Mexican recipe. In effect, cooking is the exclusive means of expression open to the female protagonist, who doesn't entirely conform to the limited role that both society and her family have given her.

Como agua para chocolate is a fresco of rural Mexican society between 1910 and 1933, and a portrayal of the deep-rooted traditions that the novel's heroine confronts.

Tita, the youngest child of a charismatic woman, is trapped in a destiny predetermined at birth: family tradition dictates that the youngest daughter must renounce marriage and devote herself to the care of her mother. Tita, however, is passionately in love with Pedro, her eldest sister's husband. She is also pursued by John Brown, an American doctor who offers her an austere and serene form of love. Twenty years later, Tita and Pedro finally come together through fire and death.

Laura Esquivel was born in Mexico City in 1950. She began her career as a screen-writer, gaining international acclaim and winning several awards. The publication of her first novel, Like Water for Chocolate in 1990 was one of the major literary landmarks of that decade. The film based on the novel, with a script written by Esquivel herself, won several prizes and was also a tremendous hit at the box-office, and an especially notable success in the US.
Her following novels, La Ley del Amor, Tan veloz como el deseo and Malinche, had similar success amongst critics and the public alike and have also been widely translated.