- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Alma Books Ltd (4 July 2011)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1846881498
- ISBN-13: 978-1846881497
- Product Dimensions: 21 x 13.6 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 303,095 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Food is like writing, it s a way to establish a contact with others. A good book is like a good dish, it can change your life . ITO OGAWA A extraordinary novel on food, love and the mother-and-daughter relationship. Returning home from work, Rinko is shocked to find that her flat is totally empty. Gone are her TV set, fridge and furniture, gone are all her kitchen tools, including the old Meiji mortar she has inherited from her grandmother and the Le Creuset casserole she has bought with her first salary. Gone, above all, is her Indian boyfriend, the maître d of the restaurant next door to the one she works in. She has no choice but to go back to her native village and her mother, on which she turned her back ten years ago as a fifteen-year-old girl. There she decides to open a very special restaurant, one that serves food for only one couple every day, according to their personal tastes and wishes. A concubine rediscovers her love for life, a girl is able to conquer the heart of her lover, a surly man is transformed into a loveable gentleman all this happens at the Katatsumuri, the magic restaurant whose delicate food can heal any heartache and help its customers find love again.
About the Author
Born in 1973, Ito Ogawa is the author of several children's books. The Restaurant of Love Regained, her first novel, is a bestseller in Japan and has been adapted into a successful movie. Ito runs a hugely popular website where she offers daily recipes of Japanese cuisine.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
Rinko is left speechless finding the flat she shared for 3 years with her Indian boy friend emptied out (incl. the pair's cash savings. Except for two items, his key on the floor and an ancient jar of her late grandmother's pickled vegetables.
With her last cash she travels to the village she left after graduation as a 15-year old, ten years ago. She never knew who her father was and escaped from her terrible mother who ran a bar. They meet again and negotiate conditions for renewed hospitality: Rinko takes care of Hermes, a 10-year old virgin sow her mother adopted after she ran off. In return, she loans Rinko money to start a restaurant in one of the disused outbuildings. Rinko learned a lot about cooking from her grandma, as a temporary cook and waitress and wants to make a living by cooking perfect dishes and meals with pure ingredients.
Speechless until the final page, she communicates via cards and a notebook. And cooks for only one table per day. But she creates magical dishes, makes people's dreams come true. It is about a very spiritual, self-centered person who believes in many gods, spirits and the power of ancestors. The finale includes the death of her mother, for whose funeral she slaughters, lovingly, Hermes and turns her into a culinary trip around the world for the mourners.
What is this? It was a bestseller in Japan. I find this book a missed chance. A good editor could have made this strange, autistic book more appealing. There is too much gushing about food, too many incomplete recipes. What intrigue there is, is poorly timed and presented.
With her last cash she travels to the village she left after graduation as a 15-year old, ten years ago. She never knew who her father was and escaped from her terrible mother who ran a bar. They meet again and negotiate conditions for renewed hospitality: Rinko takes care of Hermes, a 10-year old virgin sow her mother adopted after she ran off. In return, she loans Rinko money to start a restaurant in one of the disused outbuildings. Rinko learned a lot about cooking from her grandma, as a temporary cook and waitress and wants to make a living by cooking perfect dishes and meals with pure ingredients.
Speechless until the final page, she communicates via cards and a notebook. And cooks for only one table per day. But she creates magical dishes, makes people's dreams come true. It is about a very spiritual, self-centered person who believes in many gods, spirits and the power of ancestors. The finale includes the death of her mother, for whose funeral she slaughters, lovingly, Hermes and turns her into a culinary trip around the world for the mourners.
What is this? It was a bestseller in Japan. I find this book a missed chance. A good editor could have made this strange, autistic book more appealing. There is too much gushing about food, too many incomplete recipes. What intrigue there is, is poorly timed and presented.
Format:Paperback
My copy of The Restaurant of Love Regained by Ito Ogawa was published last year by Alma Books, I notice that the novel is due to be re-released on 26 April 2012.
Set in modern-day Japan, the story follows Rinko, a young woman who finds herself penniless when her boyfriend clears their flat of all of her possessions. With nowhere to turn and not wanting to stay in what was to be their love-nest, Rinko sets off for her home village. A village that she last saw ten years ago, when she decided that she could no longer bear living with her flighty Mother.
After a long bus journey through the countryside of Japan, Rinko arrives back in the village to be confronted by an angry mother and and even angrier pet pig, and from there on the story gets stranger and stranger. Not strange in a bad way, but strange in a bizarre way.
Rinko finds that along with losing her lover, she has also lost her voice - completely and utterly, not a squeak is left. So armed with her notebook as a way of communicating, she decides to start up her own restaurant alongside her Mother's Bar. She names the restaurant 'The Snail' and will serve just one table each evening, the menu will be individually prepared using the best local ingredients and incorporating lots of magic. Customers slowly arrive, young lovers, families, local business men - and each and every table is entranced by Rinko's wonderful food, they taste the flavours and inhale the magic.
As time passes and Rinko becomes more and more successful, she also travels on her own personal journey. Long-held secrets are revealed by her Mother, and Rinko discovers a completely different person who has been hiding behind the make-up and the numerous boyfriends.
There are times during the story when the translation becomes a little stilted, but for me, this didn't take anything away from this unique and quirky little story. Beware if you are squeamish though, as Rinko prepares much of her ingredients from scratch, and that includes the slaughter and butcher of Hermes the pet pig!
Fans of Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, La Cucina by Lily Prior and Chocolat by Joanne Harris will probably enjoy this novel - a mixture of Japanese food culture, magic, humour and very very different.
Set in modern-day Japan, the story follows Rinko, a young woman who finds herself penniless when her boyfriend clears their flat of all of her possessions. With nowhere to turn and not wanting to stay in what was to be their love-nest, Rinko sets off for her home village. A village that she last saw ten years ago, when she decided that she could no longer bear living with her flighty Mother.
After a long bus journey through the countryside of Japan, Rinko arrives back in the village to be confronted by an angry mother and and even angrier pet pig, and from there on the story gets stranger and stranger. Not strange in a bad way, but strange in a bizarre way.
Rinko finds that along with losing her lover, she has also lost her voice - completely and utterly, not a squeak is left. So armed with her notebook as a way of communicating, she decides to start up her own restaurant alongside her Mother's Bar. She names the restaurant 'The Snail' and will serve just one table each evening, the menu will be individually prepared using the best local ingredients and incorporating lots of magic. Customers slowly arrive, young lovers, families, local business men - and each and every table is entranced by Rinko's wonderful food, they taste the flavours and inhale the magic.
As time passes and Rinko becomes more and more successful, she also travels on her own personal journey. Long-held secrets are revealed by her Mother, and Rinko discovers a completely different person who has been hiding behind the make-up and the numerous boyfriends.
There are times during the story when the translation becomes a little stilted, but for me, this didn't take anything away from this unique and quirky little story. Beware if you are squeamish though, as Rinko prepares much of her ingredients from scratch, and that includes the slaughter and butcher of Hermes the pet pig!
Fans of Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, La Cucina by Lily Prior and Chocolat by Joanne Harris will probably enjoy this novel - a mixture of Japanese food culture, magic, humour and very very different.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
After hearing about this book on the radio I decided to track it down. It was an enjoyable read and I recommend it, and especially for those interested in Japanese culture and/or food (!)
I personally didn't have problems with the translation, - it read fluently and where there was no English equivalent, for example for some of the japanese foods, they've just put it in italics.
Overall, I would say it's a quirky, quiet sort of book, but I found it gripping from the first page.
I personally didn't have problems with the translation, - it read fluently and where there was no English equivalent, for example for some of the japanese foods, they've just put it in italics.
Overall, I would say it's a quirky, quiet sort of book, but I found it gripping from the first page.
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