Chopping Onions on My Heart

'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

Samantha’s mother tongue is dying out. An urgent need to find out more becomes an expansive investigation into how to keep hold of her culture – and when to let it go

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