Chopping Onions on My Heart

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A01=Samantha Ellis
afua hirsch
ancestors
arabic
Author_Samantha Ellis
baghdad
british museum
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cooking
cultural history
culture
dance
dancing
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essays
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family history
family recipe
food
forthcoming
generations
healing
hebrew
history
history of the middle east
iraq
iraqi
jew
jewish
jewish books
johnny pitts
judaism
kohl
language
lea ypi
london
memoir
michelle zauner
middle east
migration
mother
mother and son
mother son
music
nikesh shukla
oxford
parenting
philosophy of language
race
recipe
recipes
refugee
refugees
religion
religious books
sathnam sanghera
social history
therapy
tigris
trauma

Product details

  • ISBN 9781529967098
  • Weight: 200g
  • Dimensions: 129 x 198mm
  • Publication Date: 29 Oct 2026
  • Publisher: Vintage Publishing
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Paperback
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'An optimistic and wryly funny book... rich with insights' OBSERVER
'I couldn’t put it down’ RUKMINI IYER
‘I loved this book so much... Think: The Body Keeps the Score in practice not theory’ ELLA RISBRIDGER

The daughter of Iraqi Jewish refugees, Samantha Ellis grew up surrounded by a language that’s now on the verge of extinction.

The realisation that her son will not understand her mother tongue opens the floodgates and the questions keep coming. How can she pass on the stories without passing on the trauma of displacement? 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 in a journey that transports us from the calm of the British Museum to the banks of the River Tigris. As she considers what we lose and keep, she also asks what we might need to let go of to preserve our culture and ourselves.

‘A moving and resonant lament for the past but also a thought-provoking siren call for the future' ANNE SEBBA
'Urgent, alive, propulsive. I adored it' MARINA BENJAMIN

The daughter of Iraqi-Jewish refugees, Samantha Ellis is the author of the books How to be a Heroine and Take Courage and her plays include How to Date a Feminist, Cling to me Like Ivy and Operation Magic Carpet. Her journalism has appeared in the Guardian, TLS, Spectator, Literary Review and more. She worked on the first two Paddington films. She lives in London.

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