Dimensions
139 x 222 x 24mm
Every spice is valuable. Every spice has a cost in lives. A spice can be used as medicine; it can keep away infection, hold off sickness, calm a bilious stomach. Many are said to be aphrodisiacs. Yet the same spices can kill if taken in large quantities. Nutmeg. Saffron. His mothers always said it was to do with balance. That people lost their lives, in all things, when the scales were tipped too heavily in one direction . . .
The Mountain of Light, a London Indian restaurant, is Balu's great love, the delicious recipes he devises there his sole connection to the land of his childhood and the magic of his mother's kitchen. When Balu lets the flat upstairs to Sarah, he quickly finds himself caught up in the bustle of younger, busier lives. Sarah, her boyfriend Jude, and Hari, a waiter, begin to gather after hours to chat and swap stories around his tables. But as Jude's jealousy of Hari grows more pronounced, it threatens to poison their circle.
Meanwhile, Jozef, an elderly Polish man Sarah has befriended, has a heartbreaking tale of his own to tell: of his love for Ewa, a dancer with the Ballets Polski in the 1930s. As Jude slips further away from her, Sarah becomes ever more absorbed in the world of the past. Balu fears he may lose his young friend, but will the warmth of the restaurant draw her back?
