“Pick it up for the small-town setting, sweet romances, story of sisterhood ... or Western imperialism—writers from many cultures have taken to the genre. Toni Morrison, Salman Rushdie and Haruki ...

I can smell the carrot cake she dutifully baked, one of her specialties, the room fragrant from the toasted scent of cardamom, allspice, and nutmeg. I imagine the Nobel laureate, who died in 2019, ...