Osborne, Frances (2005) Lilla’s Feast: One woman’s true story of love and war in the Orient. Random House. At the end of her life, Frances Osborne’s one-hundred-year-old great-grandmother Lilla was as elegant as ever–all fitted black lace and sparkling-white diamonds. To her great-grandchildren, Lilla was both an ally and a mysterious wonder. Her bedroom was filled with treasures from every exotic corner of the world. But she rarely mentioned the Japanese prison camps in which she spent much of World War II, or the elaborate cookbook she wrote to help her survive behind the barbed wire. Lilla’s remarkable cookbook, which she composed while on the brink of starvation is a magical food journal, now housed in the Imperial War Museum in London. The pages are filled with cream puffs, butterscotch, and comforting soup. In its writing, Lilla was able to transform the darkest moments into scrumptious escape.
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7:30 Bookclub 