If you’re in the mood for a heartwarming read, you’ll want to pick up Kim Fay’s Kate & Frida – a follow up to her best-selling epistolary novel, Love & Saffron.
This one is told through letters as well. Kate & Frida follows the unexpected friendship between two young women in the early 1990s. Frida Rodriguez has moved from Los Angeles to Paris to pursue her career as a war correspondent when she writes to a bookshop in Seattle (a not-so-subtle nod to Elliott Bay Book Company, where author Fay once worked as a bookseller), and asks for a copy of Martha Gellhorn’s The Face of War. The employee who answers her letter is Kate Fair, an aspiring author and devoted bookseller.
The two launch a loyal and loving correspondence that blossoms into friendship. Frida follows a dashing war correspondent to Sarajevo during the Bosnian War, and her letters go from bright descriptions of Paris cafes to heartbreaking accounts of a city under siege. She eventually returns to Paris and takes in several Bosnian refugees who bond over food and Beverly Cleary’s Beezus and Ramona. Back in Seattle, fair Kate cares for her aging grandfather and navigates an on-again, off-again love affair with an aspiring novelist.
Much like Love & Saffron, Fay’s new novel focuses on friendship and food, with several detailed descriptions of favorite dishes and some recipes at the end. But this one is also a love letter to books and reading, and the power of literature to spread joy and bring people together. Fans of 84, Charing Cross Road will love Kate & Frida. Just be sure to keep a notebook nearby to jot down all the other titles you’ll want to check out.
