By turns lyrical and pragmatic, wise and eccentric, magical and humorous, Recipes for Sad Women is an experiment in literary medicine. Abad explains to his reader that sadness can be savoured, if not eschewed - but if we can't guarantee happiness, we can still try to attract and sustain it. Whether you are seeking a remedy for guilt (triceratops horn, boiled for three weeks), melancholy ('cauliflower in the mist', seasoned with salty tears), the 'contradictory confusion' of life ('Nothing to be done.
Have a glass of water'), or simply bad breath (try rose petal ice cream) - Abad's recipes are deliciously sharp and sweet culinary treatises on the human condition. Through this wonderful work of poetic prose Abad bewitches our senses, with the promise that 'the cure is in the air the words exhale'.