The power of written words in the form of letter writing, certainly a lost art- knocked me sideways. Joan is a whiz at spices and the various delights of California style cooking, while Imogene takes the recipes and adds the taste of her own region, while marveling at the new avenues Joan’s influence as opened for her, Francis, and their marriage. Thus, Imogene answers Joan's fan letter, spawning an unlikely, but profound friendship between the two women.Īs the years pass, they share their ups and downs, highs and lows, advising and offering support and encouragement to one another unwaveringly.Īt the forefront of their correspondence is food. The fragrant saffron triggered a memory for Imogene’s husband, Francis, and awakens in him a culinary flair Imogene never knew existed. Joan and her mother were fans of Fortier, which is what prompted the young twenty-seven-year-old Joan to write to Imogene, who was in her late fifties, at the time. In the early 1960s, Joan Bergstrom writes to columnist Imogene Fortier, sending along a sample of saffron. Putnam’s Sons publication.Ī Lovely Epistolary story of food and friendship. Into this beautiful, intimate world comes the ultimate test of Joan and Imogen's friendship-a test that summons their unconditional trust in each other.Ī brief respite from our chaotic world, Love & Saffron is a gem of a novel, a reminder that food and friendship are the antidote to most any heartache, and that human connection will always be worth creating.

Because of her correspondence with Joan, Imogen's decades-long marriage blossoms into something new and exciting, and in turn, Joan learns that true love does not always come in the form we expect it to. It is a discovery the women share, not only with each other, but with the men in their lives.

As the two women commune through their letters, they build a closeness that sustains them through the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of President Kennedy, and the unexpected in their own lives.įood and a good life-they can't be separated. Imogen lives on Camano Island outside Seattle, writing a monthly column for a Pacific Northwest magazine, and while she can hunt elk and dig for clams, she's never tasted fresh garlic-exotic fare in the Northwest of the sixties. Joan lives in Los Angeles and is just starting out as a writer for the newspaper food pages. When twenty-seven-year-old Joan Bergstrom sends a fan letter-as well as a gift of saffron-to fifty-nine-year-old Imogen Fortier, a life-changing friendship begins.

The #1 Indie Next Pick, in the vein of the classic 84, Charing Cross Road and Meet Me at the Museum, this witty and tender novel follows two women in 1960s America as they discover that food really does connect us all, and that friendship and laughter are the best medicine.

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