Laura Esquivel

Laura Esquivel was born in 1950 in Mexico City, where she currently resides with her husband and daughter. She began her career teaching and writing plays for children. She also wrote numerous film scripts. Her first novel, "Like Water for Chocolate" (1989, published by Oceania Editions), achieved unprecedented success. It was translated into thirty-five languages, remained on the New York Times bestseller list for over a year, and sold more than three million copies. The book was adapted into a film with a screenplay by Esquivel herself and directed by Alfonso Arau. For this screenplay, Esquivel won the Ariel Award in 1992, awarded by the Mexican Academy of Film Arts and Sciences, the Silver Hugo Award (at the 28th Chicago International Film Festival), and in 1993, the award at the Houston International Film Festival. In 1994, Laura Esquivel was awarded the prestigious Book of the Year Award by the American Booksellers Association, marking the first time it was given to a foreign author. In 1995, her novel "The Law of Love" was published, followed by works such as "Intimas suculentias. Tratato Historico de Cocina" (1998), "Estrellita Marinera" (1999), and "El Libro de las Emociones" (2000). The novel "Swift as Desire" was published in 2001.