Reviewed by Emma Crowley
Trapped in an unhappy marriage, Bindu is desperately lonely. Before her wedding, she was a highly sought-after cook and although she is not allowed into the kitchen in her new house, she can still taste chilli on her tongue and remember the feel of ground turmeric on her fingers. She finds solace in writing recipes and creating new spice mixes, hoping to pass them down to her unborn child. But when her jealous husband finds out, he confines Bindu to her room alone. As she goes into labour, Bindu is trapped and desperately afraid for her child’s life. Even a recipe cannot rescue her this time. Will she and her baby find a way to survive?
1990, London. Eve’s most treasured gift from her beloved adopted father was a hand-written Indian recipe book. Grieving his death, she begins to grind and mix the spices penned so carefully in the recipes. Do the crumbling pages hold the key to uncovering the secrets of her past?
Her father never spoke of her birth mother, finding it too painful to talk about his time in India. But now he’s gone, Eve is desperate to understand where she comes from. Will finding her birth family, lost for so long, help Eve to find her place in the world, or will it tear her apart?
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of The Spicemaker’s Secret to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
It’s been three years since Renita D’Silva has published any new books. But now she is back with The Spicemaker’s Secret which is set in India and begins in 1924 taking us on a journey following a young girl named Bindu. The more modern aspect of the story takes place in England in 1980 and follows Eve. It wasn’t long before I figured out the connection between the two timelines but as to the specific circumstances surrounding the connection I couldn’t quite piece them together until much further on in the book.
I’ll admit that I found this to be a very slow burner. I’d say right up until the 40% mark I found that there was nothing much happening and at times there was quite a lot of repetition and I found myself really having to concentrate to read and digest each line. I couldn’t see in what direction the book was going to go in and yes of course a reader wants to be surprised but this needed something major to shake things up. When this finally happened my entire opinion of the book changed and I found myself reading much more quickly through the chapters rather than wading through them as I had been. This turned into a story of love and sacrifice and it’s only as you reach the last quarter or so of the book that you realise what a remarkable and inspiring character Bindu truly is.
In the more modern timeline we meet Eve who is a shell of her former self after the tragic death of her husband Joe and daughter Izzy. She is trying very hard to move on even though without her family her life has lost all meaning and purpose. They were cruelly taken from her and she feels immense guilt that she could have prevented this from happening. She has shut herself off from the world and never leaves the house relying on her friend Sue and neighbour Jenny to do her shopping and to check in on her. She knows she has the rest of her life ahead of her and that she must try and navigate it despite it despite the dark feelings that surround her.
We learn a little of Eve’s family history and how she used to enjoy cooking the recipes from her mother’s cookbook with Izzy but even now that simple pleasure has been taken away from her. When Jenny falls ill and Eve is asked to take care of her daughter Maya this is when a small bit of the former Eve starts to return. She has someone relying on her and she steps outside the walls of her house and takes tentative steps into her new and uncertain world. For a long time I questioned why Eve’s story was here but by the end it does all come full circle and Eve’s ending is very satisfactory and will bring a smile to your face. Her chapters were brief and dotted amidst Bindu’s and if there had been anymore I felt they would have taken away from Bindu’s story rather than added to it.
Bindu’s story is what shines through from this book and despite the slow start I did become completely engrossed in her tale. Her mother died giving birth to her and her father was killed in a freak accident during her mother’s pregnancy so her grandmother Ajii was left to raise her. They live in a village in India where the villagers are beholden to the local landlord. Times are tough with lack of food and when there is a drought, they pray diligently for the rains to come for if they don’t what will become of them? The setting of India was fabulous. You could feel the tropical heat seeping from the pages and the descriptions of the landscape were very vivid. There is a very strong focus of food and spices and cooking throughout the book and if Indian food is your thing then your mouth will be watering on more than one occasion. Bindu helps hers grandmother with the cooking as she is often tasked to prepare meals for the landlord when he throws parties. They eke out a living in this way and by cooking for the villagers when needed. It is a tough life but Bindu is happy but as time goes by her grandmother becomes frailer and Bindu steps up to the plate. The relationship that exists between Bindu and Ajii was lovely and they protected and nurtured one another.
Bindu is a remarkable character who we see transform from a little girl to a strong, fiery and feisty young woman. She is clever and attends the local school set up by the nuns where she eventually will win a scholarship to study in the city. Bindu is a person who knows what she wants in life and as well as that she is a beauty which in turn means she attracts unwanted attention from men which only means the women of the village dislike her intensely. I loved the creative way she came up with detracting the men and in this manner that is how she came to meet the landlords son, Guru. He will go on to pay a pivotal role in her life when she is faced with a very tough decision. Bindu is a good student and friend and dutiful granddaughter but there is a rebellious side to her too that yearns for something more beyond the small village that she calls home. She wants to be independent and not follow the rules of society and when she wins the scholarship she feels all her dreams and aspirations are within reach.
When Ajii falls gravely ill and shows no signs of improvement Bindu is faced with the one of the toughest decisions that she will ever make. She goes to the landlords compound and appeals to Guru for help as he has access to English doctors. You know when Bindu does this that it is the last resort for her as she is a woman ahead of her time who believes that she can do anything and that she doesn’t have to rely on others but making this huge sacrifice shows how much she loves her grandmother and appreciates everything that she has done for her. Guru puts Bindu in a awkward position, help will be granted if she marries him.
Bindu is aghast as she sees her dreams sliding from her not to mention the fact that when the landlord hears this news from his son he will be appalled for it is not the done thing for someone at such a level of society to marry a commoner from the village that one owns. I felt every bit of Bindu’s indecision as she knew that by accepting that she was in a contract with Guru and he held all the cards and made the rules and regulations. Bindu was not a person cut out for being stuck indoors with lack of access to reading materials nor was she someone who would love spending time attending parties where she could only congregate with women. But she deserves much admiration as she knew her Ajii needed help. So an arrangement is made and the marriage takes place Bindu and Ajii move into the compound where she is tended daily by a doctor.
From this point on we see a more mature Bindu emerge but one who has to fight on a daily basis as she feels claustrophobic and trapped by the rules and regulations imposed on her. Guru’s family represents everything that she is against but maybe she can turn this to her advantage. I thought it was brilliant as to how she went about this and in doing so she provided a better life for so many others. She sacrificed her freedom by marrying Guru and day by day she loses more of herself. She is hemmed in, closeted and imprisoned to a degree and this is not the Bindu that the reader has become familiar with and nor is it one that I wished to see as her passion and fire is threatened. When an opportunity comes her way she pounces on it and in a small way she is achieving a little liberation for herself but will this ultimately prove to be her downfall? At times I felt Guru did love Bindu and that perhaps she could grow to love him and then at others he came across as being cruel in his attitude and showed a complete disregard for Bindu and her needs wants and desires. He was unpredictable, selfish, callous and ruthless for the majority of the book.
The Spicemaker’s Secret was a great start to my 2024 reading. Renita D’Silva has written an incredible story highlighting the poverty at the time for so many and how it was in stark contrast to those who lived in such great wealth and luxury. The social and cultural dynamics are expertly explored and Bindu becomes a warrior of a woman who will stay on long in your mind after you have read the final word. Love, loss, power, connections and family are all strong themes which you will certainly enjoy here and I hope many readers enjoy The Spicemaker’s Secret as much as I did.
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