Broccoli and Other Tales of Food and Love

A new book by a popular New York writer of Russian origin! In 1994, Moscow native Lara Vapnyar emigrated to the United States with a rather mediocre command of English, yet less than ten years later her stories began appearing in the pages of prestigious publications where being published is a rare stroke of luck for a beginning author. Lara Vapnyar became the third young Russian author (after Vladimir Nabokov and Sergei Dovlatov!) to be published in The New Yorker. Unlike most émigré writers, she immediately began writing in English and, according to critics, succeeded brilliantly. Her very first collection of stories (2003) was enthusiastically received and nominated for several literary awards. Now Russian readers too have the opportunity to get acquainted with the works of this talented writer. “Broccoli and Other Tales of Food and Love” is six stories in which food and love, joys and disappointments, new hopes and nostalgia for a former life and old attachments are closely intertwined. Borscht, cutlets, Olivier salad — all these dishes familiar from childhood unexpectedly take on a completely different meaning in the world of recent Russian émigrés in New York. The heroes of Lara Vapnyar’s witty, touching, and heartfelt stories need to feel the taste and smell of home, the taste of love and happiness... The culinary appendix concluding the book sounds a life-affirming chord — it makes you want to have a bowl of hot borscht and immediately pick up Lara Vapnyar’s next book!