Madhushree Ghosh w/Nina Mukerjee Furstenau

The Book Catapult is proud to host local food writer/memoirist Madhushree Ghosh in-store on Thursday, April 21 at 6pm. Madhushree will be discussing her new memoir, Khabaar with author Nina Mukerjee Furstenau. Nina will be joining the event virtually via Zoom.

Khabaar is a food memoir and personal narrative that braids the global journeys of South Asian food through immigration, migration, and indenture. Focusing on chefs, home cooks, and food stall owners, the book questions what it means to belong and what does belonging in a new place look like in the foods carried over from the old country? These questions are integral to the author’s own immigrant journey to America as a daughter of Indian refugees (from what’s now Bangladesh to India during the 1947 Partition of India); as a woman of color in science; as a woman who left an abusive marriage; and as a woman who keeps her parents’ memory alive through her Bengali food.

"I have been an enthusiastic follower of Madhushree Ghosh, and have great admiration for her literary talent. But I was not prepared for this new, very powerful, and entrancing work. I highly recommend it. It’s unforgettable.”—Luis Alberto Urrea, author, The House of Broken Angels

“A seemingly effortlessly wise collection of essays that shows again and again the ways writing about food involves more than a story, a political history, or a family legacy, as Ghosh takes the food essay into entirely new directions. The result is a brilliant book about the past and the present that also feels like the future of the form.”—Alexander Chee, author, How to Write an Autobiographical Novel: Essays

Madhushree Ghosh works in oncology diagnostics, and is a social justice activist. Her work has been awarded a Notable Mention in Best American Essays in Food Writing and a Pushcart Prize nomination. She lives in San Diego, California.

Nina Mukerjee Furstenau is author of Green Chili and Other Impostors and Biting through the Skin: An Indian Kitchen in America’s Heartland, winner of the 2014 M. F. K. Fisher Grand Prize for Excellence in Culinary Writing. She lives in Columbia, Missouri.