This Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick and New York Times bestseller is “a captivating story of love lost and found” (Kirkus Reviews) set in the lush Sicilian countryside, where one woman discovers the healing powers of food, family, and unexpected grace in her darkest hours. It was love at first sight when actress Tembi met professional chef, Saro, on a street in Florence. There was just one … Florence. There was just one problem: Saro’s traditional Sicilian family did not approve of his marrying a black American woman. However, the couple, heartbroken but undeterred, forged on. They built a happy life in Los Angeles, with fulfilling careers, deep friendships, and the love of their lives: a baby girl they adopted at birth. Eventually, they reconciled with Saro’s family just as he faced a formidable cancer that would consume all their dreams.
From Scratch chronicles three summers Tembi spends in Sicily with her daughter, Zoela, as she begins to piece together a life without her husband in his tiny hometown hamlet of farmers. Where once Tembi was estranged from Saro’s family, now she finds solace and nourishment–literally and spiritually–at her mother-in-law’s table. In the Sicilian countryside, she discovers the healing gifts of simple fresh food, the embrace of a close knit community, and timeless traditions and wisdom that light a path forward. All along the way she reflects on her and Saro’s romance–an incredible love story that leaps off the pages.
In Sicily, it is said that every story begins with a marriage or a death–in Tembi Locke’s case, it is both. “Locke’s raw and heartfelt memoir will uplift readers suffering from the loss of their own loved ones” (Publishers Weekly), but her story is also about love, finding a home, and chasing flavor as an act of remembrance. From Scratch is for anyone who has dared to reach for big love, fought for what mattered most, and those who needed a powerful reminder that life is…delicious.
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As a fellow Sicilian, and lover of all things Italian, this beautiful love story is not to be missed. The author has a wonderful way of bringing you inside her experience. You can almost feel the warmth of the Sicilian sun, the tang of ripe lemons and the salty smell of the sea. A wonderfully written first book. Highly recommended.
You know how I love Italy? And how I love fiction about community and people you don’t expect to connect, connecting? I adored this deep, lyrical, tender memoir from an African-American woman who fell passionately in love with a Sicilian–a man with a family who refused to attend their wedding–then connected with them in Sicily after he died. I was sad to see it end. Great audio. Highly recommended.
I had wanted to read this book for a while. I was expecting a love story, with sadness, sure, but that’s not what this book is. I had a hard time with it. A really hard time. I listened on Audible and ended up speeding it up just to get through it because I just wanted it to end. I knew there would be sadness, but I also expected a love story that would tell of their happiest times as well. Instead it was just the same story of grief over and over. I liked what little I learned of Saro and would have loved to have known more of him. I just didn’t care for the wife/widow. I understand her grief, but she just whines throughout the entire book-when she’s not over describing food. She came across as spoiled and self-centered. I’m still not sure why she chose to include some of the stories she did-specifically her one-night stands in college, which she mentions and describes more than once-as they were irrelevant to the story.
The time jumps were often confusing since they followed no logical pattern. The author tried too hard to be poetic in her descriptions and it was annoying, causing me to roll my eyes frequently. Overall, it was way too long, I was bored, and couldn’t wait for it to end. Glad I borrowed on Kindle Unlimited.
A memoir of love and grief, with young widow Locke making new connections with her late husband’s Sicilian family and culture. Beautifully written and full of deep emotion.
From Scratch by Tembi Locke
Book Review
“Think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course”. Kahlil Gibran.
A poetic memoir of loss, love & finding home.
From Scratch is a multi cultural / cross continents love story about parenthood, loss, forgiveness and healing all drizzled in lots of love.
Food played a significant role from beginning to end and would prove to be a contributing salve to healing and family cohesiveness. Grief clung to three generations of women – memories lapsing and resurrecting. It’s with the power of love and forgiveness, that Tembi and Zoela will build a home away from home.
Strategically embedded within her story, are issues of classism and racism – Sicilians were looked down upon by Florentines, being the only brown person in destinations visited and the theft of her families land in Texas.
Included in this memoir are some tasty recipes, topics & questions for discussion, ideas to enhance your book club and lastly, a conversation piece with the author Tembi. The only omission from this book, is a wine pairing list to accompany the recipes.
Tembi, if you are available, we would love to chat with you.
From Scratch by Tembi Locke
Book Review
“Think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course”. Kahlil Gibran.
A poetic memoir of loss, love & finding home.
From Scratch is a multi cultural / cross continents love story about parenthood, loss, forgiveness and healing all drizzled in lots of love.
Food played a significant role from beginning to end and would prove to be a contributing salve to healing and family cohesiveness. Grief clung to three generations of women – memories lapsing and resurrecting. It’s with the power of love and forgiveness, that Tembi and Zoela will build a home away from home.
Strategically embedded within her story, are issues of classism and racism – Sicilians were looked down upon by Florentines, being the only brown person in destinations visited and the theft of her families land in Texas.
Included in this memoir are some tasty recipes, topics & questions for discussion, ideas to enhance your book club and lastly, a conversation piece with the author Tembi. The only omission from this book, is a wine pairing list to accompany the recipes.
Tembi, if you are available, we would love to chat with you.
I love this book becasue it was real.. and real solutions in a world grounded in pride and prejudices.
Wow! This book touched so many emotions. The writer graciously shared her story/journey, emotions, grief and her insights. I literally laughed and cried I loved it. Wonderful book!
I just finished Tembi Locke’s From Scratch. I read it for my very unusual and equally gratifying Book Club for Mortals that runs out of the public library. This is a themed book club … and the theme is mortality.
From Scratchis a memoir in which she tells of meeting and falling in love when studying in Florence, Italy. The man was a Sicilian and a chef, so the book is filled with food and cooking and even recipes in the back. They struggle with his Sicilian family’s refusal to acknowledge his marriage to “an outsider” … not to mention an African American actress. But they persevere. They live in L.A. but return to Sicily every summer until they finally win his family over. But this is only after he is diagnosed with cancer. So, the first part of the book is this lovely but painful love story which includes their adoption of a daughter, and the latter part is her living through his dying and death and her need to carry on. In being his caretaker for 10 years, she learns to love in a way she would not have otherwise done. I relate to that fully.
She learns that ‘giving’ love is a way to deepen and extend love. It is also to learn that she is stronger and more generous than she ever imagined she could be.
In the end of From Scratch, Tembi Locke finds comfort and nurturance (spiritual and literal since Nona – her mother-in-law, lives and loves through cooking and housekeeping in an old-world manner). In Nnna’s company and home in the small Sicilian village where her husband grew up, mother, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter help and hold each other through grief and recovery. It’s a lovely, comforting, and life-affirming tale.
From the shores of California to an island in the Mediterranean, FROM SCRATCH is a rich, sensual reading experience. Equal parts uplifting and devastating, it is a memoir of soul-searching beauty. As extraordinary and unique as Tembi Locke’s life is, all readers will identify with the themes of love, family, and forgiveness. Highly recommended.