“Khabaar: An Immigrant Journey of Food, Memory and Family”
2022, University of Iowa Press, Independent Publishers Book Awards (IPPY Awards) gold medalist
Non-fiction: Narrative
Pushcart-nominated essayist Madhushree Ghosh’s “Khabaar: An Immigrant Journey of Food, Memory and Family”, expands a Longreads essay (notable mention, The Best American Essays in Food Writing, 2020).
Khabaar, a food memoir and personal narrative, braids the global journeys of South Asian food through immigration, migration, and indenture. Focusing on chefs, home cooks, and food stall owners, the book questions what it means to belong and what does belonging in a new place look like in the foods carried over from the old country? These questions are integral to the author’s own immigrant journey to America as a daughter of Indian refugees (from what’s now Bangladesh to India during the 1947 Partition of India); as a woman of color in science; as a woman who left an abusive marriage; and as a woman who keeps her parents’ memory alive through her Bengali food.
What they are saying about Khabaar
Ms. Magazine ‘Most Anticipated Read for the Rest of Us in 2022’
Chicago Review of Books 12 Must-Read Books of April
SheKnows15 New Books by Women of Color You Should Buy in Women’s History Month
Buzzfeed 17 Books from Smaller Presses You Need to Read
Must-read 2022 Memoir: Phenomenal Books, Brown Girl Bookshelf, Cold Tea Collective
Rishi Reddi in LA Review of Books called KHABAAR, “Equal parts memoir, political commentary, and cookbook, …(KHABAAR) braids food and memory and loss into a single compelling strand.”
Neelanjana Banerjee at The Rumpus says, “Her essays bind together the journey of a diasporic Indian student trying to find themselves in America, the bafflement of loss—of both parents and her marriage—of global politics and corporate maneuvering, while ladling out ideas of nourishment, flavor, and how what we eat shapes who we think we are.”
Lopa Basu in India Currents says, “Food offers a vision of not just one woman’s immigrant journey, or that of her extended family’s—it juxtaposes individual with national trauma.”
Sunday Mid-Day hails KHABAAR as “A new book blends a memoir with the larger narrative on how food from the region has travelled through immigration, migration, and indenture.”
Layla Khoury-Hanold in Hippocampus Magazine notes, “Khabaar is for readers looking for a deeper understanding of how food serves as a platform to explore other topics, such as the immigrant experience, social justice, and self-discovery, for food lovers who relish descriptive prose and armchair travel, and for anyone who devours thoughtful, reflective writing set against a precise style of storytelling.”
NRI Pulse: “Extraordinary culinary memoir is simmered to perfection.”
From University of Iowa Press
Khabaar is a food memoir and personal narrative that braids the global journeys of South Asian food through immigration, migration, and indenture. Focusing on chefs, home cooks, and food stall owners, the book questions what it means to belong and what does belonging in a new place look like in the foods carried over from the old country?
Coming Soon by Madhushree:
Madhushree Ghosh’s upcoming food and travel narrative memoir,
“SAFAR: Finding Home, History and Culture through Punjabi Food” in the American West is available for pre-order.
Literary Representation
Dana Newman Literary Agency
1900 Avenue of the Stars, 19th Floor
Los Angeles, Los Angeles County 90067, USA