Lilla sits in her bedroom surrounded by exotic treasures, a centenarian wrapped in black lace and diamonds. Her great-granddaughter Frances knows her as elegant and mysterious, but beneath this polished exterior lies a turbulent past. Born in 1882 to English parents in the Chinese port city of Chefoo, Lilla experienced both luxury and hardship from childhood. She survived an unfortunate marriage, a hostile mother-in-law, family tragedy, and two devastating wars. During World War II, imprisoned in Japanese camps and facing starvation, Lilla created an elaborate cookbook filled not with the rotten vegetables and donkey meat of her reality, but with cream puffs, butterscotch, and warming soups. This magical food journal became her escape from barbed wire and deprivation. Through recipes that conjured safety and abundance, she transformed her darkest hours into nourishment for the soul. The story spans continents and cuisines, from Shanghai noodles to British India's chutneys, revealing how food and place sustained one woman through extraordinary trials.
Genres: family-life, historical-fiction, 20th-century, world-war-ii, memoir, biography-memoir, 21st-century, food-writing
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-secrets, survival
Setting: Chefoo, China, Japan, Shanghai
Period: 1882, World War II
448 pages · Paperback · Lumen Editorial
Content warnings: war