GUADALAJARA, MEXICO -- Laura Esquivel told Efe at the Guadalajara International Book Fair that her novel, "Como agua para chocolate" (Like Water for Chocolate), will hit the Broadway stage in 2010.

A company bought the rights to the book two years ago and is now taking steps to bring the production to fruition, the writer said.

For now, only the names of producer Margo Lion and musical director Ted Sterling are known, Esquivel said.

"It would be wonderful if, somehow - and I think that that is the intention - it showed a Mexico that is not known there (in the United States) and which has so much to say," Esquivel said.

The writer is not participating in the project, she explained, although she is keeping up to date on its development.

"Like Water for Chocolate," set in northern and revolutionary Mexico at the beginning of the 20th century, tells the story of Tita, a young girl who sees her longing for her lover, Pedro, derailed because of her strict and religious mother's conviction that the youngest daughter must not marry but must care for her mother until that parent dies.

Tita finds herself only able to express her passion through her cooking, which causes those who sample it to feel her emotions of love, lust, revulsion, desperation and more.

The magical realism novel was adapted for film by Mexico's Alfonso Arau in 1992 and achieved great success in theaters.

Almost 20 years after the book's publication, Esquivel marvels that the younger generation is discovering it. "It's very pleasing to see that it is still alive," she said.

A special limited edition will be produced for the international book fair, the largest publishing event in the Hispanic world.

The fair, which began on Nov. 29 and runs through Dec. 8, gathers more than 1,600 publishing houses from about 40 countries and expects to attract half a million visitors.



Click on the poster above to watch a favorite scene from the film and/or click here to see the Mexican elements of the literary movement of magical realism illustrated by different scenes.