 | |
| Author | Monique Truong |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Historical fiction |
| Set in | Paris, Vietnam |
| Publisher | Houghton Mifflin |
Publication date | 2003 |
| Publication place | United States |
| ISBN | 978-0-618-30400-4 |
The Book of Salt is a 2003 debut novel by Vietnamese-American author Monique Truong.
It presents a narrative through the eyes of Bình, a Vietnamese cook. His story centers in Paris in his life as the cook in the home of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, and is supplemented by his memories of his childhood in French-colonial Vietnam. This book is structured as a stream of consciousness narrative, in which Bình's present circumstances are mixed with episodes from his past, showing bits and pieces of people and events from the Lost Generation in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s.