Strong Roots
A Memoir of Food, Family, and Ukraine

Quotes

“It’s a breathtaking achievement to depict such pain so exquisitely. And it’s strikingly sui generis. Olia Hercules deftly fuses war reporting, food memoir, an investigation into identity, and an act of resistance to create what I feel compelled to describe as a painting out of words. An instant classic.”—Nigella Lawson

“Only Olia Hercules could write such a cinematic and brave-hearted book examining what it is to live as a Ukrainian family at a time of unimaginable horrors and yet on every page the reader finds grace, strength, and occasionally the sting of dark Ukrainian humor. Strong Roots manages the near impossible: it is both a deeply personal book and a vital historical record.”—Caroline Eden, author of Samarkand and Cold Kitchen

“It is the roots that keep the trees from falling during a storm. Olia Hercules tells us that the same is true for people and nations. It is the roots of culture and dignity that make them unbreakable at the time of war and peace, in Ukraine and beyond.” —Serhii Plokhy, Ukrainian historian and author of Chernobyl Roulette: War in the Nuclear Disaster Zone and The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History

“Fiery, tender, deeply personal, how else to explain the importance of this unflinching account by an acclaimed food-writer—cook, mother, daughter, grandchild—of a people and place in a land under siege? Intimate, moving, and brilliantly written, every page is a treasure trove of memories—her own, her family’s, and through listening to the experience of others. Here, in all its beauty and sorrow, is the story of Ukraine as it is, and was, and surely will be again. Unforgettable.” —Elisabeth Luard, author and Chair Emerita of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery

“A searing, magnificent work. Poetic, personal, and raw. An exploration of what it means to be Ukrainian and to be defiant.” —Andrew Harding, BBC foreign correspondent and author of A Small, Stubborn Town: Life, Death & Defiance in Ukraine

“Sweeping, intimate, defiant, and brimming with love. An exceptional work by a writer of enviable gifts.” —Louise Kennedy, author of Trespasses