Book review: Abundance by Amit Majmudar

Amit Majmudar is a poet and author; this is his second novel. Although the central character is an Indian mother who is dying, this is not a tale of death and sorrow, but one of families, cultural differences and food. This book tells the tale of how one family copes with the illness and impending death of the matriarch, revealing the differences between the lives of the immigrant parents and their American born children and grand-children.
The daughter, Mala is a busy working mother who has shown little interest in the food that her mother prepares, but gradually they find that sharing the recipes and processes of making the traditional food gives them an arena in which to communicate, support and heal each other.
Despite being written by a man this is a story firmly set in the female domain of relationships and the kitchen. Restrained and precise, the writing gives us access to another world. A delight.