This book is a translation from the Spanish novel by F.G. Haghenbeck, a Mexican author, and historian who writes award-winning crime novels, scripts for Superman and other graphic novels. I give you his background because all of it enters into his fascinating fictional account of Frida Kahlo's life.

The book starts out with: "Among Frida Kahlo's personal effects, there was a little black book called 'The Hierba Santa Book'...a recipe collection for offerings on the Day of the Dead...It was to be exhibited for the first time in a monumental exhibition at the Palacio de Bellas Artes on the anniversary of Frida's birth...but the day the exhibition opened...it was discovered that the notebook had vanished."

The author reimagines Kahlo's life and relationships through this secret book and several other notebooks discovered in her home in Mexico. The lives of Georgia O'Keeffe, Leon Trotsky, Nelson Rockefeller, Hemingway, Dalí, and Diego Rivera are featured.

Art, cooking, politics and passion are integral to the story and made for a fascinating read. What detracted from a five star was the male narrator which inserted some 'editorializing'in some parts. This may have been due to translation-I don't know.

At the end of each chapter are Frida's recipes with more up-to-date recipes at the end of the book.