From Amazon.com: Eating the cake her mother has prepared for her ninth birthday, Rose Edelstein discovers she has a gift: she can taste her mother's emotions in the food she prepares. Soon, every bite Rose takes is filled with feelings--not just her mother's but those of other people as well--and what might have been a gift becomes a burden and then, perhaps, a curse. Because this is a novel rooted in family, Rose will learn that she is not the only Edelstein with a peculiar gift or burden. How she and others learn to cope--or not, as the case may be--is the small, sad story Rose shares. Bender's earlier work has often been described as surrealistic; however, this novel seems more informed by a kind of magical realism that struggles with transformation ...
