Synopsis
'Karolina Ramqvist's writing is straight-talking scripture' - Heidi Julavits, author of Directions to Myself
A moving memoir detailing four generations of women through the food they share.
In Bread and Milk, Karolina Ramqvist traces a girlhood through food - she recalls the bag of tangerines devoured in one sitting outside her mother's bedroom, and delighting in the luxury of that extra knob of butter on her grandmother's rice pudding.
In the thin spread of low-fat margarine on her mother's bread, and the pancakes on the counter each time she will be left alone for the night, the young Karolina learns that food connects the women in her life as much as it reveals the chasms between them. When she finds herself a single parent to a daughter of her own, food becomes the way for her to show her love, but also instils a complicated inheritance.
Bread and Milk is a brazenly intelligent - and mouth-wateringly delicious - reflection on love, motherhood and family from one of Sweden's most notable literary stylists.
A moving memoir detailing four generations of women through the food they share.
In Bread and Milk, Karolina Ramqvist traces a girlhood through food - she recalls the bag of tangerines devoured in one sitting outside her mother's bedroom, and delighting in the luxury of that extra knob of butter on her grandmother's rice pudding.
In the thin spread of low-fat margarine on her mother's bread, and the pancakes on the counter each time she will be left alone for the night, the young Karolina learns that food connects the women in her life as much as it reveals the chasms between them. When she finds herself a single parent to a daughter of her own, food becomes the way for her to show her love, but also instils a complicated inheritance.
Bread and Milk is a brazenly intelligent - and mouth-wateringly delicious - reflection on love, motherhood and family from one of Sweden's most notable literary stylists.
Details
13 February 2025
9781786583314Imprint: Manilla Press
Reviews
Ramqvist's highly relatable memoir details the problems that can arise when a child associates food with love. . . her story, with its lush and evocative prose, will speak to many readers.
Karolina Ramqvist's writing is straight-talking scripture . . . [her] mind is transgressively pragmatic, and a constant source of enlightenment.
A master of finely observed detail.
Karolina Ramqvist writes with frosty precision the kind of literature that is unforgettable. Her portraits of women hit deep into bone and marrow.
