Like Water for Chocolate

Like Water for Chocolate is a novel by Mexican novelist and screenwriter Laura Esquivel. It was first published in Mexico in 1989. The English version of the novel was published in 1992. The novel follows the story of a young woman named Tita, who longs for her beloved, Pedro, but can never have him because of her mother's upholding of the family tradition: the youngest daughter cannot marry, but instead must take care of her mother until she dies. Tita is only able to express herself when she cooks. Esquivel employs magical realism to combine the supernatural with the ordinary throughout the novel. The novel won the American Booksellers Book of the Year Award for Adult Trade in 1994.