Umami follows a group of residents in a Mexico City condo designed in the shape of a tongue by its food-anthropologist owner; each of the houses is named after one of the five flavors we recognize: Salty, Sour, Sweet, Bitter and Umami. Two deaths strike the condo in one year. The novel opens as 12-year-old Ana, still grieving her little sister and deeply admiring of her landlord, makes an ambitious plan to plant a cornfield in one of the yards. In a structure that constantly motions back to the past, much in the way that grief works, Umami allows us to see how the present—Ana turning the communal soil—interconnects with key moments in her neighbors’ histories. Following this choral narrative, the reader finds herself rummaging through the fertile little mysteries of all these characters’ lives: Who was my wife? What did that letter say? And how could a girl who knew how to swim drown.

In her debut novel Umami, Laia Jufresca (1983) gives the reader a taste of her voice, which is truly original: clear, skeptical, witty and with great emotional depth. Her style is ingenious, but never feels forced; her story is as interesting and surprising as its protagonists, who the reader grows to care deeply for. Umami more than lives up to its name: it’s a delicious work of fiction which deserves to be devoured by its readers.

Umami was published in Spain and Mexico in 2015. Translations in English (Oneworld) and French (Buchet Chastel) are forthcoming. Laia is represented by Víctor Hurtado of VicLit in Barcelona. This translation was made with their consent and very kind collaboration.