I received an ARC from NetGalley of Tastes Like Seeing God by Nina Michiko Tam, and this is my honest review.

After her brother, an aspiring chef, dies tragically, Jess decides to follow the list of foods he had compiled; foods that “taste like God”. What begins as a search for the foods he loved becomes something much more meaningful, as Jess attempts to “visit his life” and understand the brother she has lost.

This book was surprisingly moving. By meeting his friends and former employers, tasting the food he loved, and spending time with the people who knew and loved him, Jess gradually feels that she is getting closer to her brother. Her grief is portrayed very honestly, and I appreciated how the book explores the complications of grief and the very different ways people experience and process loss.

I was consistently engaged throughout and thought the pacing was good. I also really enjoyed the way the story moves between different countries, following Jess on her journey both geographically and emotionally. I cared about the characters and found myself rooting for Jess as she tried to make sense of her loss.

One of the things I particularly appreciated was the emphasis on kindness. Small acts of kindness and human connection become an important part of Jess’s journey, and this added another layer to the story.

The ending was powerful and emotional, and I thought it brought the book together beautifully. This was a story that resonated with me. I also appreciated the book club questions and the culinary biography included at the end — both were great additions. A moving story about grief, love, food, memory, and the ways we try to remain connected to those we have lost.

Nina Michiko Tam’s debut follows Jessica whose beloved brother is killed in a road accident on his way home from the New York restaurant where he worked the week she turns eighteen. A decade her senior, Tommy secured a place at New York’s prestigious culinary institute which opened up the world to him, his rare visits home marked by rows with their strict parents. At the wake she knows he would have loathed with its abundance of church lady food, a stranger appears. Maurice hands Jessica Tommy's passport from which falls a boarding pass with a list of dishes Tommy felt tasted like seeing God. Deeply unsettled, Jessica throws off her good girl persona, leaving home at dawn the next day with no note for her parents. She has a plan: sample all the dishes on Tommy's list hoping to find out as much about his life as she can. It will lead her to New York, Germany, Paris and finally Maurice’s home in Senegal.
Tam’s novel explores themes of grief, family and faith through Jessica’s journey but it’s the food strand that captivated me most. It’s clear from her extensive culinary bibliography that she adores food, describing it so beautifully you can almost taste it. Jessica emerges from her odyssey knowing that her brother was a kind, gregarious, talented young man, difficult at times, but much loved and respected. Her future, as we gather from Tam’s foreshadowing, will be very different from the one envisaged by her parents but they, too, are much changed. I loved this accomplished, satisfying novel which more than lived up to hopes raised by Bryan Washington’s admiring puff.