Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune

Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune is a wonderful 'comfort food' meal of a story! Set almost entirely on one neglected street of San Francisco's Chinatown, it depicts the community at a time which is a turning point in all their lives. Lim's gentle prose and whimsical magical realism allows her to tell a story of deep emotional truths without the narrative becoming stodgy. (It's so tempting to use many foodie puns throughout this review but I will try to restrain myself!) At the heart of the novel is three generations of the Tan family, each a single woman trying to find her place in the world and, sadly, estranged from the other two. Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune is as much a musing on the importance of family as it is on the magical properties of good food.

As a confessed foodie myself, I loved concepts such as the steam from a bowl of soup wrapping its consumer in a comforting blanket. Sometimes I've eaten dishes that created the same emotional warmth. I was envious of Natalie's gift of a historic Chinatown restaurant although not, obviously, of the event that led her to own it. The whole concept of this story appealed to me on so many levels. Perhaps the prose was a little too repetitious at times, but overall I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent with this book. It's a perfect heartwarming story to ward off rainy winter days and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves cosy domestic fiction with a sprinkling of magic glitter!