THE HEART-SHAPED TIN

I'm late to this but wanted to share with you the UK cover of my new book THE HEART-SHAPED TIN, published in May from @4thestatebooks. (To US readers…stay tuned. The book will be published in November and it has a very different and equally gorgeous cover from @w.w.norton - see below).

As the subtitle suggests, it’s about love, loss and kitchen objects, told in 35 short stories or segments. It’s the most personal book I’ve ever done. One of the main themes is my relationship with my mother and how it played out through kitchen objects after she developed dementia. One of the early signs that she wasn’t quite herself was when she became convinced that someone had stolen her beloved toast rack. Later, when she was in a care home, I found myself holding on ever tighter to her wooden spoons because they took me back to the warmth of her kitchen, long before she had forgotten the names of her daughters and grandchildren. This is the power of objects; they keep those we miss in the room with us.

But it isn’t just memoir. What made it a joy to write was getting the chance to tell the stories of other people, past and present, and the deep meanings and emotions people attach to kitchen objects, whether it is a cracked pasta bowl decorated with tomatoes, a beautiful china dinner service, a father’s precious Budare pan from Venezuela, a pressure cooker that had helped keep someone well fed for 66 years, a mother’s salt shaker or some Syrian vegetable corers which symbolise a happy and peaceful Aleppo that no longer exists. I’m so grateful to everyone who spoke to me and shared their stories.

I hope you’ll enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

The response from readers so far has been unlike anything I've known with any other book. So many of you have told me that it made you cry. And that it reminded you of the precious objects in your own life. I can't say how much this means.