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“What begins as a cruel comic romp ends as a surprisingly winning story of hardship and resilience.”—The New Yorker
The story of three women tangled up in a family dynamic at turns hilarious and tragic.
When Rosa Achmetowna discovers that her seventeen-year-old daughter Sulfia is pregnant, she tries every bizarre home remedy to thwart the pregnancy. But despite her best efforts, the baby girl is born—and immediately wins Rosa’s heart. Dark-eyed Aminat is a Tartar through and through, just like Rosa, who wastes no time in plotting to steal her away from Sulfia.
When Aminat, now a willful teenager, catches the eye of a sleazy German cookbook writer researching Tartar cuisine, Rosa is quick to broker a deal that will guarantee all three women passage out of the Soviet Union. But as soon as they are settled in the West, the ties that bind mother, daughter, and grandmother begin to fray.
“Alina Bronsky writes with a gritty authenticity and unputdownable propulsion.”—Vogue
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
Huffington Post • Wall Street Journal • Publishers Weekly
A German Book Award Finalist
“Bronsky’s great gift is humor.”—The Los Angeles Times
“Mordantly funny.”—The San Francisco Chronicle
“A masterful study in delusion . . . insightful and subversive, funny and disturbing.”—Financial Times
“An important new literary voice.”—Ms. Magazine
“Bronsky’s lean writing style propels the reader from page to page.”—Shelf Awareness
★ “Bronsky lands another hit with this hilarious, disturbing, and always irreverent blitz.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
★ “A very funny and a very dark black comedy. Rosa and her family are creations that won’t easily be forgotten.”—Library Journal (starred review)
“A darkly humorous novel with sharp observations about the machinations of a monstrous mother.”—Kirkus Reviews