The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine

The story of three women tangled up in a family dynamic at turns hilarious and tragic.

When Rosa Achmetowna discovers that her seventeen-year-old daughter Sulfia is pregnant, she tries every bizarre home remedy to thwart the pregnancy. But despite her best efforts, the baby girl is born—and immediately wins Rosa’s heart. Dark-eyed Aminat is a Tartar through and through, just like Rosa, who wastes no time in plotting to steal her away from Sulfia.

When Aminat, now a 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 passage out of the Soviet Union. But as soon as they are settled in the West, the ties that bind mother, daughter, and grandmother begin to fray.

“Alina Bronsky writes with a gritty authenticity and unputdownable propulsion.”—Vogue