A SHY TEENAGER ATTEMPTS to express how she really feels through the confections she makes at her family's pasteleria. A tourist from Montenegro desperately seeks a magic soup dumpling that could cure his fear of death. An aspiring chef realizes that butter and soul are the key ingredients to win a cooking competition that could grant him the money to save his mother's life.

Welcome to Hungry Hearts Row, where the answers to most of life's hard questions are kneaded, rolled, baked. Where a typical greeting is Have you had anything to eat? Where magic and food and love are sometimes one and the same.

Told in interconnected short stories, Hungry Hearts explores the many meanings food can take on beyond mere nourishment. It can symbolize love and despair, family and culture, belonging and home.

This description comes from the publisher.