The Book of Salt is a novel narrated by Binh, the Vietnamese cook employed by Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. Viewing his famous mesdames and their entourage from the kitchen at 27 rue de Fleurus, Binh observes their domestic entanglements while seeking his own place in the world. In recounting this tale of yearning and betrayal, writer Monique Truong explores Paris from the salons of its artists to the dark nightlife of its outsiders and exiles. She also takes us back in time to Binh's youth in colonial Saigon and life as a galley hand to his fateful encounters in Paris with Paul Robeson and Ho Chi Minh.

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Photo: The Book of Salt © M. Olival-Bartley