She briefly lived in Illinois and Ohio, but has spent much of her life in Northern California, which she often writes about. At Berkeley, she lived in the International House and worked in the dining hall. To earn money for her education, she held many odd jobs, including babysitting, selling merchandise in an Indian boutique, slicing bread in a bakery, and washing instruments in a science lab.

from the University of California, Berkeley. She continued her education in the field of English by receiving a Master’s degree from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, and a Ph.D. She was born in India and lived there until 1976, at which point she left Calcutta and came to the United States. Her newest novel is Before We Visit the Goddess (about 3 generations of women- grandmother, mother and daughter- who each examine the question 'what does it mean to be a successful woman.') Simon & Schuster. Divakaruni also writes for children and young adults.Her novels One Amazing Thing, Oleander Girl, Sister of My Heart and Palace of Illusions are currently in the process of being made into movies. Her works have been translated into 29 languages, including Dutch, Hebrew, Hindi and Japanese. Her work is widely known, as she has been published in over 50 magazines, including the Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker, and her writing has been included in over 50 anthologies. Her themes include the Indian experience, contemporary America, women, immigration, history, myth, and the joys and challenges of living in a multicultural world. Her fourth poetry collection, Leaving Yuba City, was published by Anchor in August 1997.Ĭhitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an award-winning author and poet. In 1995 her short story collection Arranged Marriage was awarded the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Prize for Fiction, the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award for Fiction, and an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, born in India, is an award-winning poet who teaches creative writing at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, California, where she also serves as president of MAITRI, a helpline for South Asian women. Spellbinding and hypnotizing, The Mistress of Spices is a tale of joy and sorrow and one special woman's magical powers. An unexpected romance with a handsome stranger eventually forces her to choose between the supernatural life of an immortal and the vicissitudes of modern life. Once fully initiated in a rite of fire, the now immortal Tilo-in the gnarled and arthritic body of an old woman-travels through time to Oakland, California, where she opens a shop from which she administers spices as curatives to her customers. Magical, tantalizing, and sensual, The Mistress of Spices is the story of Tilo, a young woman born in another time, in a faraway place, who is trained in the ancient art of spices and ordained as a mistress charged with special powers.

The mistress of spices book review