''I wanted to go on reading it forever'' - Nigella Lawson
''Like a dinner with friends you won''t want to end'' - J. Ryan Stradal, author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest
''Warm, delicious, and absolutely satisfying-I devoured in one enthusiastic gulp!'' - Meg Waite Clayton, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Train to London

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. Joan lives in Los Angeles and is just starting out as a writer for the newspaper food pages. 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 US of the 1960s. As the two women commune through their letters, they build a closeness that sustains them through the unexpected changes in their own lives.

Food and a good life - they can''t be separated. It is a discovery the women share not only with each other, but with the men in their lives. 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.

Into this beautiful, intimate world comes the ultimate test of Joan and Imogen''s friendship - a test that summons their unconditional trust in one another.

''A genuine pleasure. You''ll want to share it with everyone you call friend'' - Louise Miller