An edgy memoir on food, family, and forgiveness, infused with humour, heartache, and original family recipes. A child of divorce, growing up Jewish-Ukrainian in Manitoba with an alcoholic father and her mother’s hidden struggle with terminal cancer, Fedoruk’s skillful writing is both poetic and startling, revealing her innermost fears and struggles to overcome adversity. Her protective love of her younger sister and daughters to her relations with her two babas/grandmothers is admirable. Moving to the West Coast in her 20s, she learned to eke a living off the land, first tree-planting, then raising a family on Gabriola Island. An intimate glimpse into island living, juggling life as an entrepreneurial soap-maker and home cleaner, with a long-distance marriage while raising young kids. An intriguing history is revealed for each recipe, like stinging nettle pesto, sea-urchin fettuccine with spot prawns, and ethnic favourites like blintzes and Russian pelmeni. If you love food and candid reflections, this memoir will not disappoint.

Cautions / Content Warnings: Mature read: sexual references, alcoholism.
Images: Recipes inset in each chapter
Bibliography: No
Index: No

Source: Books BC - BC Books for Schools

Margot Fedoruk is a writer, book reviewer and entrepreneur, whose work has been published in the Globe and Mail, Quill & Quire, BC BookWorld, Ormbsy Review, and Portal. She holds a BA from the University of Winnipeg and a BA from Vancouver Island University where she majored in Creative Writing. She was awarded the Barry Broadfoot Award for creative nonfiction and journalism and a Meadowlarks Award for fiction, both from VIU. She has a personal blog called Death Defying Acts of Living and an instructional soapmaking blog called Wash Rinse Repeat. For more information, visit margotfedoruk.ca.

Margot Fedoruk's profile page

• Winner, Taste Canada Awards, Silver - Culinary Narratives

"An engrossing memoir about sea-urchin divers, the lightning bolt of first love, and the loneliness of a long-distance marriage."
—Jan Wong, award-winning author of Apron Strings: Navigating Food and Family in France, Italy, and China

"By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, a timid girl from Winnipeg’s North End becomes a boisterous, eloquent West Coaster. Margot Fedoruk inherits fiercely resilient genes from her Big and Little Babas. Read on to discover how an unstoppable zest for living transformed a haphazard upbringing. And for her drool-worthy recipes!"
—Caroline Woodward, bestselling author of Light Years: Memoir of a Modern Lighthouse Keeper

“Margot Fedoruk asks herself: “Is this a normal way to live? Would I choose this life again?” and you can’t help but read on, waiting for the answer.”
—Jack Knox, bestselling humourist and author of Fortune Knox Once: More Musings from the Edge

“Margot Fedoruk plunges the reader into island life: love, sex, marriage, children, community, ferries, food, and the ocean itself. Intimate and funny, her story is also a testament to the vast amount of work women do, including the (unpaid) emotional and domestic. It will build your appetite—and fortunately the recipes are first-rate.”
—Kathy Page, Rogers Writers' Trust award-winning author of Dear Evelyn

"In Margot Fedoruk's exquisite memoir, longing hangs in the air like an unidentified fragrance—longing for an intact family, longing for the perfect love. When she finally achieves some version of both, you will want to cheer her on. And you'll want to taste-test the tantalizing recipes she offers along the way, too."
—Frank Moher, award-winning playwright, journalist, and media critic

“These are stories of hard separations and cold beers, of surviving the choices we make, and of forging home on a small island in the Pacific Northwest “surrounded by green so dark that it soaked up the sun.” And the recipes? Shared like secrets between the closest of friends after just enough wine and just the right shade of twilight.”
—Amber McMillan, author of The Woods: A Year on Protection Island

“A beautifully-crafted, passionate celebration of the power and the pain of the bonds of family, a fierce, devoted marriage, and the way that food ties into memory, heritage, and being. The fusion of memoir and recipes is utterly enticing, and it may be cliched to say it, but I truly devoured the book in one sitting!”
—Sheryl Normandeau, author of The Little Prairie Book of Berries