How to share an egg A true story of hunger, love, and plenty

Canadian writer and chef Reichert pays homage to her upbringing by focusing the lens on her Holocaust-survivor father. Told in fluid prose evoking strong emotions, the tale of her father's survival is also the memoir of her own life's journey. A relatable intergenerational dynamic makes it difficult for her father to understand her need to pursue her own path, which includes an unhappy first marriage, divorce, and a midlife career change. But their strong bond resolves as he tells her his most difficult stories. Reichert's curiosity, love, and respect for her father push her to persevere, taking risks in her personal life and career, while he insists she stop to just enjoy "a happy life." Reichert weaves in her lifelong passion for cooking, beginning with her Ukrainian grandmother, Baba Sarah, who teaches her to make potato knishes, wild blueberry varenikes (dumplings), and grieven (crunchy fried chicken skin). It continues as she raises a family on local produce and home-baked tarts, becomes an editor and writer, and, after culinary school, spends hours perfecting a pre-war favorite of her father's, cholent (beef stew with potatoes). This often harrowing but ultimately life-affirming tale of family bonds, food, and love will touch even the most hardened of readers.

Journalist and chef Reichert debuts with a mesmerizing memoir about grappling with depression and growing up as the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. The youngest child in a tranquil Edmonton household, Reichert spent blissful afternoons cooking with her grandmother, accompanying her father to the restaurants he owned, and testing out her own recipes. "Food was everything," Reichert writes. "I knew it was delicious and I knew it was precious." The flip side of Reichert's sunny upbringing, however, was an unrelenting pressure to be happy, and a deep sense of shame whenever she struggled to contain her fear or sadness: "Life was painted with almost too much color in an effort to brighten what had come before." After eating borscht on a trip to Warsaw as an adult, Reichert was moved to investigate her father's time in Auschwitz and to unpack how the experience shaped his--and by extension her--love of food and obsession with joy. Recounting major meals and events in her life, from a bumpy marriage to her decision to become a chef, Reichert weaves a rich narrative tapestry that traces her journey toward self-knowledge in luminous prose. Nimble and nourishing, this is not to be missed. Agent: Michelle Tessler, Tessler Literary.