Oh my goodness, did I ever love this! If you like to cook. If you like to eat. If you like a multi-layered magical tale. Or just something deliciously different, Kim is a wonderful story-weaver. Highly recommended. ( )

Tiptree honours/shortlist 2003. Surprised myself by liking it a lot more than I expected. It often seemed to be about to slip into cliches - neurotic woman "discovers hersef" and finds a man, or neurotic woman discovers hippy-dippy spirituality - but always recovered through solid doses of common sense, and ended up being about a young woman growing up and making her own decisions. The fantasy bit wasn't too jarring and the descriptions of desert were very evocative. ( )