A book of ambiguous genre and delicate, playful wisdom, Recipes for Sad Women is not a novel and not a cookbook. But should you wish to know what food to prepare in the case of sobbing or of nervousness, what the closest thing to dinosaur meat is (and therefore the best remedy for guilt), or what to eat when you are perfectly healthy and enjoying reciprocated love, you will find no better collection of recipes on the market. An acclaimed novelist, essayist, journalist and translator, Abad’s eccentric, sensual and wry guide is neither unserious, nor entirely plausible in its advice. Elegant, melancholic, funny and full of morsels of insight, it is deftly and movingly instructional on the proper appreciation of sadness.