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In the quest to discover herself, Josephine returns home to Argentina to learn the lessons of her mom and abuela’s pasts, along with the delicious dishes that formed their kitchen arsenals. But her travels from las pampas to the prairie aren’t easy or conventional. Josephine faces mystical encounters with the spirit world that lead her to discover a part of herself that, like sobremesa, had been lost in translation.
Just as she’s ready to give up on love all together, Josephine surprises even herself by entering into a forbidden, transcontinental love affair with the Argentine man of her dreams. If they are to be together, Josephine must make a difficult choice: return to the life she knows back in Pittsburgh or follow her heart and take a chance on herself.
This magical, multigenerational story of a daughter’s love and the culinary legacy that helps Josephine navigate life-changing loss is a reminder that home is anywhere the heart is. By means of culinary time travel, Sobremesa takes the reader on a parallel culinary journey to Argentina that unfolds with each chapter.
Book Clubs: Sobremesa Book Club Guide includes questions and discussion prompts for book clubs.
Praise for Sobremesa
- “Sobremesa is the perfect blend of culture and experience and will transport readers to the streets of Argentina without them having to leave the comforts of their own kitchen . . .” Read more in ¡Presente! Pittsburgh Latino Magazine.
- “Sobremesa is a reminder of a slower time, an exuberant, passionate place, and love as vast as the Argentine pampas.” Read more in Foreword Reviews.
- “Abundant in heart, intimacy and flavor . . . Oría’s story spreads love and nourishment where others might forget its power . . .” Read more in Shelf Awareness.
About Josephine Caminos Oría
Born in the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Josephine Caminos Oría was raised Stateside from infancy on in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Gathering around a table large enough to sit her family of eight, plus two for her abuelos on her mom’s side, food and the sobremesa that accompanied it, was how Josephine learned to make sense of the world. Stories of where she came from, and the people she’d left behind, were served to Josephine during family sobremesas she savored like meals. Those tales nourished Josephine’s imagination and sense of self, setting the table for Josephine’s second act—a family and professional life focused around Argentine food and culture. It was in her early 40s, with five young children in tow, that Josephine took a chance on herself, leaving a C-level career to make dulce de leche. Today, Josephine, along with her Argentine husband, Gastón, is the founder of La Dorita Cooks, an all-natural line of dulce de leche products and Pittsburgh’s first resource-based kitchen incubator for start-up and early stage food makers (see www.ladorita.net for more information). In addition, Josephine is the author of the cookbook as food-memoir, Dulce de Leche: Recipes, Stories, and Sweet Traditions (Burgess Lea Press, February 2017).