ONE FRIDAY IN NAPA

In Hamm’s novel, a woman discovers a secret from her mother’s past in an old cookbook.

Vene Winstonarrives at her parents’ estate to comfort her mother, Olivia, during the late stages of cancer, but the reunion is far from emotional. While Vene is close with her father, Jonathan, a successful diplomat who served under President Harry S. Truman after World War II, her relationship with her mother has always been strained. Olivia didn’t support her daughter’s choice to become a doula or her decision to end a moribund marriage when Vene met her true love, Tony. Everything Vene thinks she knows about her mother changes the day she discovers a worn cookbook dating back half a century with notes on every page. They reveal a different side of Olivia: the passionate cook with a fiery heart, the woman ready to risk her position in society for love. Something happened to her right after the war, and Vene begins her search for clues driven by a burning question: “How did this woman who knew each spice jar, who was so playful and passionate about food, become her mother? Cold. Unsentimental.” In her debut novel, the author cooks up a fascinating love story, steeped in mystery until the final pages, spiced with mouthwatering recipes from Italian cuisine, the history of the Napa region, and the details of its winemaking practices (such as storing wine in caves built by the same laborers who constructed the transcontinental railroad). The mother-daughter dynamic at the heart of the narrative remains nuanced, complicated, and not easily reconciled. Overshadowed by Olivia, Vene never quite becomes a character in her own right (her husband, Tony, and 18-year-old daughter, Dani, make only brief appearances), yet her love and compassion for her mother underly the novel’s most moving scenes, such as the moment when, discussing funeral arrangements, Vene can’t help but blurt out, “I’m going to miss you, Mom,” and Olivia quietly echoes, “I’ve missed me for a long time already.”

A touching debut that delights the senses.