num_pages: 261
description: "[He] came to us through an advertisement that I had in desperation put in the newspaper. It began captivatingly for those days: 'Two American ladies wish . . .' "In Paris, in 1934, Binh has accompanied his employers, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, to the train station for their departure to America. His own future is unclear: remain in France, go with "the Steins", or return to his native Vietnam? A lost soul, he is a late-night habitu of the Paris demimonde, an exile and an alien, a man of musings and memories, and, possibly, lies. His mesmerizing narrative catapults us back to his youth in French-colonized Vietnam, his years as a galley hand at sea, and his days turning out fragrant repasts for the doyennes of the Lost Generation.
language: English
title: The Book of Salt
titlecomplete: The Book of Salt
genres: Historical, Asian Literature, Queer, Literary Fiction, Novels, LGBT, France, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Food
ratings_count: 6003
places: Paris, Saigon, North Carolina
awards: awardedAt: 1072944000000
name: Stonewall Book Award
category: Literature, awardedAt: 1072944000000
name: New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Guardian First Book Award
category: Longlist, awardedAt: 1072944000000
name: PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Lambda Literary Award
category: Gay Fiction, awardedAt: 1293868800000
name: Rosenthal Family Foundation Award, awardedAt: 1262332800000
name: Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature
category: Adult Fiction Honor
publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt