The Book of Perilous Dishes by Doina Rusti translated by James Christian Brown

I would like to thank Anne from Random Things Tours and Neem Tree Press for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Neem Tree Press

Published – Out Now

Price – £24.99 hardback £6.49 Kindle eBook

1798 Bucharest: A magical, dark adventure

A year full of intrigue and political machinations: a slave-chef lives in Bucharest, sought after by everyone. His cooking is sublime, satisfying even the sophisticated tastes of the Prince, who steals him from his rightful owner and installs him in the Palace. However, no one knows that the chef has in his possession a witch’s recipe book: the Book of Perilous Dishes. The recipes in this magical book can bring about damaging sincerity, forgetfulness, the gift of prediction, or hysterical laughter. And the rightful owner of this book is fourteen-year-old Pâtca, initiated in the occult arts. Pâtca comes to Bucharest, to her uncle, Cuviosu Zăval, to recover this book, but she finds him murdered and the Book of Perilous Dishes has disappeared without trace. All that Zăval has left her is a strange map she must decipher. Travelling from Romania to France and on to Germany to do so, Patca's family's true past and powers are revealed, as is her connection to Silica the cook…

Often when we hear a book is first person we tend to just think of it as a character narrating their story. At a basic level it’s someone telling us their actions and thoughts; a good first person story gives you a sense of the character bt a lesser appreciated skill is the ability to give you a sense of the story being told. One of the most unusual reading experience I have had then is the Roumanian fantasy novel The Book of Perilous Dishes by Doina Rusti (translated by James Christian Brown) where it is less a character’s story and more a maze of stories knitted together to create a really unusual slice of storytelling.

We are off to Roumania in 1798 where various world powers vy for power from Greeks, Turks, the French and many more. It’s a time of magic, secret religions, intrigues and cooks being snatched/bribed from the local rulers. Into this rather unusual city of Bucharest arrives young Patca who is escaping from danger and recovering from the loss of her mentor the witch Massima. Unfortunately she finds her Uncle Zaval murdered alongside two servants and very soon after Patca is kidnapped, put in prison and finding herself trying to put the pieces together and stay safe when magic can carry the death sentence.

Now this is a ride of narration which should challenge our preconceptions of how first person narration works. So while Patca tells us their story she moves every few pages either into a flashback, a folk story, an anecdote or even philisophising on the human condition. Reading this story you soon get a sense of the narrator as a performance with a skilful use of language giving the story its own beat and flavour. You can easily imagine this is Patca herself sitting in a pub narrating her story to you and getting carried away. The meandering I think is either going to frustrate you or entertain you as a matter of taste. It may best be sampled in small chunks rather than attempt a more standard constant read read but despite these diversions all you do regularly get a quick recap of where the story has got up to.

Patca is both shown here as and adult and a 14 year old. A very precocious one who thinks she has amazing powers that rarely come to pass. Smart, wilful and untrusting (and not without good reason as we find) she finds herself  in a web of lies and schemes that tell us a lot about the town and country of the time. What I liked about this is the feeling you really are in a very different place to these ones we tend to read set in the U.K. at the time.

The Book of Perilous Dishes is an unusual and sometimes challenging read. Those who enjoy stories within stories and wish to experience other countries’ approach to fantasy stories will I think be the best rewarded. A memorable reading experience!