Chopping Onions on My Heart

Samantha Ellis

The daughter of Iraqi-Jewish refugees, Samantha grew up surrounded by the noisy, vivid, hot sounds of Judeo-Iraqi Arabic. A language that's now on the verge of extinction. The realisation that she won't be able to tell her son he's 'living in the days of the aubergines' or 'chopping onions on my heart' opens the floodgates. The questions keep coming. How can she pass on the stories of displacement without passing on the trauma? Will her son ever love mango pickle? In her search for answers Samantha encounters demon bowls, the perils of kohl and the unexpected joys of fusion food. Her journey transports us from the clamour of Noah's Ark to the calm of the British Museum, from the Oxford School of Rare Jewish Languages to the banks of the River Tigris. As Samantha considers what we lose and keep, she also asks what we might need to let go of to preserve our culture and ourselves.

Author(s): Ellis, Samantha
Binding: Hardback
Date of Publication: 03/04/2025
Pagination: 352 pages
Series: N/A
Imprint: Chatto & Windus
Published By: Chatto & Windus
Book Classification: Memoirs|Cultural studies: food & society|Cultural studies: customs & traditions|Cultural studies: customs & traditions|History of ideas|Social & cultural anthropology|Social & cultural history|Judaism|Language: history & general works|Philosophy of language|Social groups
Dimensions: 222x140x26
Weight: 390
ISBN13\EAN\SKU: 9781784745028