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The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine
The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine | Alina Bronsky
21 posts | 17 read | 31 to read
Rosa Achmetowna is the outrageously nasty and wily narrator of this rollicking family saga from the author of Broken Glass Park When she discovers that her seventeen-year-old daughter, stupid Sulfia, is pregnant by an unknown man she does everything to thwart the pregnancy, employing a variety of folkloric home remedies. But despite her best efforts the baby, Aminat, is born nine months later at Soviet Birthing Center Number 134. Much to Rosas surprise and delight, dark eyed Aminat is a Tartar through and through and instantly becomes the apple of her grandmothers eye. While her good for nothing husband Kalganow spends his days feeding pigeons and contemplating death at the city park, Rosa wages an epic struggle to wrestle Aminat away from Sulfia, whom she considers a woefully inept mother. When Aminat, now a wild and 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 a passage out of the Soviet Union. But as soon as they are settled in the West, the uproariously dysfunctional ties that bind mother, daughter and grandmother begin to fray. Told with sly humor and an anthropologists eye for detail, The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine is the story of three unforgettable women whose destinies are tangled up in a family dynamic that is at turns hilarious and tragic. In her new novel, Russian-born Alina Bronsky gives readers a moving portrait of the devious limits of the will to survive.
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review
Sapphire
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Mehso-so

This was an odd book. I started it a number of years ago and dnf, but put it on my list to try again for #Germany in the #foodandlit challenge. I am glad i came back. From where I left off, I saw the humor I missed years ago. But the second half found me appalled. But the picture of self denial taken to the absurd is timely. Being NYE and the last prompt of the year, I went to the local bakery for stollen and salztangen - yum. And cinnamon buns.

Catsandbooks Too bad the book was just OK. But the bread looks delicious!! 🇩🇪 2y
25 likes1 stack add1 comment
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Sapphire
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December reading goals: stayed up late and finished finding me by Viola Davis for irl bookgroup on Thursday. That leaves my final #foodandlit (tagged) book for the year. I have two audio books in progress I need to finish so I can start the new Louise Penny. Gaudy nights is my digital read. It‘s slow going but worth it. It also works for my #192025 challenge.

Librarybelle Looks like some great reading goals! Good luck! 2y
Catsandbooks Excellent end to the year! 2y
17 likes2 comments
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emilyhaldi
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This comical read makes for a great work-from-home break!

(mug given to me by my adoring husband 😜)

youneverarrived 😂 I love the mug 5y
Cinfhen That mug is fab💜😁 5y
MicheleinPhilly HA! That mug is the best! 5y
Gissy Love that mug! 😍 5y
Reviewsbylola Lol Alex 🤣 5y
70 likes5 comments
review
readtheworld
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Pickpick

Started this during last week‘s #24in48 readathon and finished it a few nights ago. Set in Russia and Germany, this novel tells the story of Rosalinda, whose quest to give her beloved granddaughter a better life is by turns hilarious and horrifying.

#fiction #litfic #translation #readtheworld #bookrec

59 likes3 stack adds
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readtheworld
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I reached 24 hours just a few minutes after midnight — whew! Ready for bed now, but excited to keep reading this tomorrow morning.

Happy #24in48, everyone!

GypsyKat Congratulations!🎉 6y
sprainedbrain Woohoo! 🎉 6y
mrp27 🎉🎉🎉 6y
See All 11 Comments
BarbaraJean Woohoo! 🎉👏🏼🍾🥂 6y
Megabooks 👍🏻👍🏻🎊🎊🙌🙌👏🏻👏🏻🎉🎉🎉🥳📚 6y
Simona Congrats 👏👏👏 6y
Worldforreading Great 🎉 6y
JazzFeathers Wow!!! Fantastic! 6y
PurpleyPumpkin Well done, congrats!🎉 6y
Librarybelle Congratulations! 6y
hes7 Yay! 🎉 6y
81 likes11 comments
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eraderneely
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Having after dinner drinks with our books. I am loving this warm weather - I know Leeds is cold and damp right now.
(Reunion Island/La Réunion)

TrishB It‘s definitely not t shirt weather!! 6y
squirrelbrain Ha! Leeds has been delightful today - very bbrr 🥶. Not jealous at all! 6y
eraderneely @squirrelbrain @TrishB so glad I‘m missing it! 6y
25 likes3 comments
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Audrey
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Pickpick

Sly and witty, this book has subtle humor and love interwoven within the plot. Mother‘s love and abuse all come together for survival in the Soviet Union and towards Europe. We take for granted how life is easier in a non totalitarian society where one has to fight for everything in order to live.

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writerlibrarian
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Tiny book haul to start October. But... big 🏒 haul...a goalie, a captain and a pest. 😄

One library 📚 and one bought. Sparte will be the next ancient history book after I finish Alexander's campaign.

Surprise cameo by one of my cats.

#bookhaul #catsofLitsy

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Nickinpa
Pickpick

The unreliable (and unlikeable) narrator reigns supreme in this one. I ended up liking it quite a bit.

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emilyhaldi
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I can‘t wait to read this darkly comedic book about Rosa, a delusional, controlling mother and grandmother who seems to be a bit of a #spicegirl. I love a story about family dysfunction!
#aprella

BkClubCare Good one! 7y
Cinfhen The cover is 🙌🏻 7y
Simona This one is also in my TBR pile... 7y
See All 9 Comments
Reviewsbylola This is a great cover! 7y
DreesReads I found this book to be sad, not funny at all. Not tear-jerker sad, more sad depressing. 7y
BarbaraBB Great cover and great blurb. On the wishlist it goes...! 7y
Kalalalatja Love that cover! 7y
Mdargusch Well the cover sure makes the book look funny. 7y
batsy I love the covers of the Europa editions 😍 7y
112 likes9 stack adds9 comments
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shawnmooney
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A zany, propulsive novel about Rosa, a middle-aged mother and eventually grandmother in late-Soviet Russia, whose emotional manipulativeness, delusions of grandeur, and larger-than-life ego are so compelling that her unreliable narration destabilizes and entertains you at the same time as you‘re confusedly rooting for her.

My full Booktube review here: https://youtu.be/DQ1VBoXnEb8

Bibliogeekery Nice review! 7y
saresmoore What a great review! 7y
Lindy I loved this book. 😊 7y
52 likes2 stack adds3 comments
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shawnmooney
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MayJasper Radical ❣ 7y
minkyb I may have to try this sometime. 7y
46 likes1 stack add2 comments
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shawnmooney
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LeahBergen I like the sound of this one! 7y
37 likes1 stack add1 comment
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andrew61
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#allthebooksof2017 #newfavoritecharacters
There are loads of favourite characters this year but here are some that stood out; Eddie flynn, Jackson lamb, lena and lila, and Rosa from the tartar recipes.

review
andrew61
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Pickpick

Rosa is the manipulative, bullying, self obsessed heroine of this darkly comic story. From the beginning she terrorises her family, cowes her daughter and tries to mould and control her granddaughter. She dominates the book but she was so brilliantly drawn i was hypnotised by the path of her life and the wreckage she leaves in her wake- my final pages were accompanied by fish,chips,mushy peas and red wine - classy.

saresmoore The book sounds good and now I want some fish & chips! 7y
Cathythoughts It all sounds good to me 👏👏👏 7y
18 likes1 stack add2 comments
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andrew61
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#slipperypeople #rocktober
I am loving my current read about Rosa the extremely slippery, manipulative and tough tartar mother in this book. I love this quote which sums her up as she confronts her weak husband about her daughter and granddaughter . Darkly funny im halfway through but it seemed a good excuse to post on this thread without physically hunting for a book.

Cinfhen Well done ✅ 7y
Lindy Thanks for reminding me about this dark and funny novel. I really enjoyed it. 7y
23 likes1 stack add2 comments
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suvata
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Pickpick

I guess you could say that I have an odd
sense of humor. I say that because most books in the humor category don't particularly amuse me. Exception to the rule: Alina Bronsky's The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine. Her wry, sardonic humor was "not too hot" or "not too cold". In fact, I would say it was "just right". This book is a tragic comedy about three women and their strange family dynamics or dysfunction as the case may be.

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suvata
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Next up.

21 likes2 stack adds
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WOCreads
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A book with a long title...Had to choose a German book of course, clever or what?😂 @RealLifeReading

#booktober #German #russischdeutsch #Russian

Lindy Love this book! 8y
33 likes1 stack add1 comment
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Jillsandypants
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Pickpick

I heard about this book on one of the Bookriot podcasts. Omg...it is darkly hilarious. If you think you have mom issues, you have nothing on this family! The narrator of this story is the most delusional mother I have ever seen/read about. Mommy Dearest has nothing on her!!

RachaelViolet @Jillsandypants I just took a screen shot to send you to ask if this was the book you were telling me about then I realized it was your review, sounds so good! 8y
Jillsandypants @RachaelViolet It is so freaking funny. This lady is the worst mom, ever. But she thinks that she is doing everything right, and that she's superior to everyone else. It's kind of maddening. 8y
21 likes4 stack adds2 comments
review
Jillsandypants
Pickpick

I heard about this book on one of the Bookriot podcasts. Omg...it is darkly hilarious. If you think you have mom issues, you have nothing on this family! The narrator of this story is the most delusional mother I have ever seen/read about. Mommy Dearest has nothing on her!!