The Book of Salt is Monique Truong’s truly mesmerising and witty first novel set primarily in 1930’s Paris. It follows the narrative of a young gay Vietnamese man called Binh who becomes the personal cook for Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. As he tries to find his own place in the world, we’re sent on a journey through Binh’s consciousness, which is mixed with his life in Paris and his past in French-colonial Vietnam as he tries to find his own place in the world. Throughout the novel, Truong touches on themes of exile, diaspora, culture, food, memory among others with stimulating metaphors and delightful originality.