Bender, Aimee. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake: A Novel. New York: Anchor Books, 2011. Print. ISBN 978-0-385-72096-0; Paperback; $15.00.
Annotation:
Rose Edelstein has a secret: she can taste people's emotions in the food they make. But she's not the only Edelstein with a secret.
Book Talk:
When Rose Edelstein turns nine her cheery, fast-talking mother makes her favorite lemon cake, but everything is ruined when Rose tastes her mother's buried feelings - of sadness, loneliness, and emotional hunger. It begins happening at every meal until Rose can no longer bear it and demands to have her mouth removed.
"I didn't talk at the table because I was busy surviving the meal. After the incident in the ER, I no longer wanted to advertise my experience to anyone. You try, you seem totally nuts, you go underground. There's a kind of show a kid can do, for a parent - a show of pain, to try to announce something, and in my crying, in the desperate, blabbering, awful mouth-clawing, I had hoped to get something across. Had it come across, any of it? Nope."
As Rose matures into a teen, and then a young woman, she discovers she's not the only member of her family with a secret, or a special gift.
Available in paperback, hardcover, eBook, audio CD, and MP3.
Award:
Alex Award Winner, 2011.