I know marketing for books means someone is always going to compare a new book to a beloved or popular one. In this case, Kim Fay’s Love & Saffron was compared to 84, Charing Cross Road. I enjoyed Love & Saffron, and I’m recommending it to people who enjoy epistolary novels, but I’m going to predict right up front that it won’t have the staying power of Helene Hanff’s book.

Imogen Fortier has been writing her column, “Letters from the Island” for ten years now for Northeast Home & Life magazine. Joan Bergstrom, a twenty-seven-year-old in Los Angeles, writes to Mrs. Fortier, telling her how much she enjoys the column. As a thank you, she encloses a packet of saffron that she picked up on a trip to the Far East. In 1962, saffron is not well-known in the U.S., so Joan encloses a recipe. That letter, and the recipe, changes their lives, and forges a strong friendship.

Imogen is shocked when her husband, Francis, responds as he does to the saffron. He recognizes the smell, and makes her an omelet, the first time she ever saw him cook. And, it’s the first time he tells her a story about his experiences in World War I. It was a French soldier after the war who taught him to make that omelet with saffron. As Francis delves into cooking, it opens up a side to him that she never saw. She tells Joan she’s known Francis since he was a toddler, and she is now discovering aspects of him that she never knew in the course of their lives together.

Imogen’s column was always about their weekends and time on Camano, Island in Washington. Now, Joan starts to write to her about her food adventures in Los Angeles as she explores ethnic foods and tries to cook them. Joan learns quite a bit about Mexican food from her neighbor’s carpenter, Mr. Rodriguez, and then the two of them start to explore other foods. Not only is it rare in the early sixties for a woman to explore ethnic cuisine, it’s unusual for her to have a friend who is Mexican. Imogen and Jane write to each other about their discoveries of food and of life.

The first half of the book is light as the two women explore a developing friendship. But, as they learn to trust each other with their secrets and their hearts, the letters grow more serious. Love & Saffron is a time capsule of a time in which women were struggling to find their place in the world, and it’s reflected in the difference in Imogen and Joan’s lives and experiences.

When you finish, you’ll want to read the author’s note to discover the basis of her epistolary novel. It’s a story based on trust and the changes in the world. If you appreciate the confidences that can be shared in letters, check out Love & Saffron.

Kim Fay’s website is https://www.kimfay.net/

Love & Saffron: A Novel of Friendship, Food, and Love by Kim Fay. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2022. ISBN 9780593419335 (hardcover), 208p.

FTC Full Disclosure – I received an ARC of the book.