Using his noodle

A journey from mastery of a carrot salad to finding new love in Wellington ends the dislocation felt after a bereavement.

- MELANIE KWANG

When his mother finally dies after a period of sickness, Romesh Dissanayake's narrator searches for answers by starting a noodle shop. Admittedly leaning into the "food-loving immigrant stereotype", he commits to serving authentic food he grew up with, and mastering the carrot salad his mother left behind. The novel's title becomes a meditative refrain as the narrator begins each workday and works through his grief.

Business is slow and customer interest in the shop soon dwindles to nothing. Eventually, the narrator cannot afford to pay his expenses and the menu shrinks out of necessity and lack of motivation to a handful of items.

The carrot salad, like a fading memory, has long lost its shine. It tastes nothing like the original and is criticised when it's served. The failing start-up feeds into a series of poor decisions culminating in one of the worst road trips imaginable, which serves as the catalyst for our narrator's catharsis.