Like Water for Chocolate

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Like Water for Chocolate is a popular novel published in 1989 by first-time Mexican novelist Laura Esquivel. The novel follows the story of a young girl named Tita who longs her entire life for her lover, Pedro, but can never have him because of her domineering mother's traditional belief that the youngest daughter must not marry but take care of her mother until the day she dies. Tita is only able to express her passions and feelings through her cooking, which causes the people who taste it to experience what she feels. The novel was originally published in Spanish as Como agua para chocolate and has been translated into 30 languages; there are over three million copies in print worldwide. The novel makes heavy use of magical realism. The novel was made into a film in 1992. It earned all 11 Ariel awards of the Mexican Academy of Motion Pictures, including the Ariel Award for Best Picture, and became the highest grossing Spanish-language film ever released in the United States at the time.