Gingerbread

The intriguing role that gingerbread plays in beloved children’s tales serves as the inspiration for Helen Oyeyemi’s charming and creative book “Gingerbread.” A wonderful story of an unexpected family legacy—where inheritance is a recipe—is told in the book. Seemingly typical working mother Harriet Lee lives in a seventh-floor walk-up apartment with some very talkative greenery.

The apartment is painted gold. Their gingerbread is well-liked in Druhástrana, a distant place from Harriet’s early years. The Lees’ constant in their lives is gingerbread, even as they deal with family resentment, ambition, and jealousy.