Boris Fishman was born in Minsk, Belarus, and immigrated to the
United States in 1988 at the age of nine. His journalism, essays,
and criticism have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times
Magazine and Book Review, The New Republic, The London Review of
Books, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Travel & Leisure, and
New York Magazine.
His first novel, A Replacement Life, was a New York Times Notable
Book of the Year (2014), winner of the VCU Cabell First Novelist
Award and the American Library Association's Sophie Brody Medal; a
Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick; and a finalist for
the National Jewish Book Award. His second novel, Don't Let My Baby
Do Rodeo, was also a New York Times Notable Book of theYear (2016),
and received rave reviews.
Boris teaches in Princeton University's Creative Writing Program,
and lives in New York City.
“A tightly written page-turner about the author’s childhood in
Minsk, his extended family and their odyssey from Belarus to New
York (via Vienna and Rome in the 1980s) as well as his efforts to
conquer his own demons. While reading it, I was frequently tempted
to head to the kitchen and fry some onions, the step that starts
many of the Eastern European recipes in his book.” — Florence
Fabricant, New York Times, “Front Burner”
“Terrifically nuanced and multidimensional…I’ve been reading every
food memoir available, including those by Anthony Bourdain,
Gabrielle Hamilton, Ruth Reichl, Michael Pollan, Samin Nosrat,
Michael Twitty, and now Boris Fishman. His is the most focused and
most multilayered of these wonderful books.” — Panthea Reid,
Philadelphia Inquirer
“As Fishman suggests with this profusion of stories, all feasts are
savage, in the sense that cuisine, like culture, is ultimately
wild, feral, untamed.” — Paste
“Fishman’s writing is brisk and vivid, and despite generations’
worth of trauma the family suffered, from pervasive anti-Semitism
to the brutalities of World War II, his memoir is often funny...
This book departs from other memoirs: Most chapters end with
detailed recipes, adding a lovely, homey dimension.” — BookPage
“This beautifully written memoir is a wonderful story about family,
love, and connecting with your roots.” — Library Journal
“This rich, memorable exploration of immigrant identity, culture
clash and Soviet cuisine will linger long after the book has been
closed or the last of the dishes within have been served.” — Shelf
Talker
“If you aren’t hungry when you start reading this book, you will be
by the time you’ve finished.” — Bookish
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