3.5
Umami
ByPublisher Description
'A wonderfully surprising novel, powered by wit, exuberance and nostalgia.' Chloe Aridjis, author of Sea Monsters
A captivating portrait of contemporary Mexico, cut through with dazzling wit and sensitivity
It started with a drowning.
Deep in the heart of Mexico City, where five houses cluster around a sun-drenched courtyard, lives Ana, a precocious twelve-year-old still coming to terms with the mysterious death of her little sister years earlier. Over the rainy, smoggy summer she decides to plant a vegetable garden in the courtyard, and as she digs the ground and plants her seeds, her neighbors in turn delve into their past. As the ripple effects of grief, childlessness, illness and displacement saturate their stories, secrets seep out and questions emerge – Who was my wife? Why did my mom leave? Can I turn back the clock? And how could a girl who knew how to swim drown?
Using five voices to tell the singular story of life in an inner city mews, Umami is a quietly devastating novel of missed encounters, missed opportunities, missed people, and those who are left behind. Compassionate, surprising, funny and inventive, it deftly unpicks their stories to offer a darkly comic portrait of contemporary Mexico, as whimsical as it is heart-wrenching.
A captivating portrait of contemporary Mexico, cut through with dazzling wit and sensitivity
It started with a drowning.
Deep in the heart of Mexico City, where five houses cluster around a sun-drenched courtyard, lives Ana, a precocious twelve-year-old still coming to terms with the mysterious death of her little sister years earlier. Over the rainy, smoggy summer she decides to plant a vegetable garden in the courtyard, and as she digs the ground and plants her seeds, her neighbors in turn delve into their past. As the ripple effects of grief, childlessness, illness and displacement saturate their stories, secrets seep out and questions emerge – Who was my wife? Why did my mom leave? Can I turn back the clock? And how could a girl who knew how to swim drown?
Using five voices to tell the singular story of life in an inner city mews, Umami is a quietly devastating novel of missed encounters, missed opportunities, missed people, and those who are left behind. Compassionate, surprising, funny and inventive, it deftly unpicks their stories to offer a darkly comic portrait of contemporary Mexico, as whimsical as it is heart-wrenching.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesUmami Reviews
3.5
“me gustaron muchos los distintos temas que exploran los personajes: la comunidad, la familia (la que nos toca y la que elegimos), el duelo (ante la pérdida de alguien, pero también de las versiones de los personajes, de sus ideas de familia). lo que sí es que siento que este libro fue vibes first, o sea, hay mucho diálogo interno, mucho recuerdo, mucha reflexión, mucho ambiente, y aunque sí está el hilo conductor de luz, noelia y pina y su mamá, no siento que haya “pasado” mucho; no me molesta, sólo es una experiencia distinta. sí esperaba más enfoque en el jardín de ana, lo empecé a leer pensando que ese sería el punto central y motivada por eso. me quedé porque sí me clavé con los personajes. igual siento que aunque me encanta poder explorar distintos personajes y tener la imagen completa de la privada, por lo mismo, no terminamos de conocer profundamente a ninguno, quizá sólo a alf.”
“un libro que te habla, que te reconforta, que te encanta y te hace sentir el amor de un hombre que verdaderamente ama a su mujer, obviamente sólo una mujer lo podría escribir.
se nota que la autora investigo y también que es muy de fifi, jajajaja, es que sí se siente un poco lo blanca y adinerada
me encanta lo de umami y los sabores, que delicia, hasta ganas de saber más me quedaron.
la historia de mar también es bonita, pero no sé, siento que fue muy superficial, me encanto lo de nombrar colores.
aunque la historia de las infancias se siente como muy de blancos, como que sí no logras conectar con ella,
pero la historia de Alfonso y Noelia”
About Laia Jufresa
Laia Jufresa was born in Mexico City. Laia’s work has been featured in several anthologies and magazines such as Letras Libres, Pen Atlas, Words Without Borders and McSweeney's, and she was named one of the most outstanding young writers in Mexico as part of the project Mexico20. In 2015 she was invited by the British Council to be the first ever International Writer in Residence at the Hay Festival of Literature. She currently lives in Cologne, Germany.
Sophie Hughes is a literary translator and editor living in Mexico City.
Sophie Hughes is a literary translator and editor living in Mexico City.
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