Description

A rapturous novel about a young chef whose discovery of pleasure alters her life and, indirectly, the world

‘A rich novel of ideas’ GUARDIAN
‘A tasty treat’ iNEWS
‘A genius balance of page-turning and lyrical prose’ INDEPENDENT
‘A sharp, sensual piece of art. When I read I’m always searching for pleasure, for the want, and this book helped me feel something’ RAVEN LEILANI
‘It’s rare to read anything that feels this unique. A richly imagined, ambitious, and haunting novel’ GABRIELLE ZEVIN
‘Truly exceptional’ ROXANE GAY

A smog has spread. Food crops are disappearing. A chef escapes her career in London to take a job at a decadent mountaintop colony seemingly free of the world’s troubles. There, her enigmatic employer and his visionary daughter have built a lush new life for the global elite, one that reawakens the chef to the pleasures of taste, touch and her own body.

In this atmosphere of hidden wonders and seductive violence, the chef’s boundaries undergo a thrilling erosion. Soon she is pushed to the center of a startling attempt to reshape the world far beyond the plate.

Sensuous and surprising, joyous and bitingly sharp, told in alluring language, Land of Milk and Honey is a striking novel about food, sex and the intricacies of desire and longing.

Praise for C Pam Zhang:
‘A blazing writer’ Daisy Johnson
‘Truly gifted’ Sebastian Barry
‘An arrestingly original writer’ Sunday Times

Publisher Review

Land of Milk and Honey is a sharp, sensual piece of art. Zhang writes about the appetites of the body, the uneasy coexistence of scarcity and plenty, and the pleasure and debasement of what is surrendered to survive. This is an incredible exploration of whether it is possible to preserve one’s art when answering to a master that is not yourself. When I read I’m always searching for pleasure, for the want, and this book helped me feel something — Raven Leilani It’s rare to read anything that feels this unique. A richly imagined, ambitious, and haunting novel — Gabrielle Zevin Truly superb — Douglas Stuart A brilliant, near-future fairytale, LAND OF MILK AND HONEY is the most sensuous novel about food I’ve ever read — Emma Donoghue Land of Milk and Honey is truly exceptional — Roxane Gay No one writes like C. Pam Zhang. Ferocious, sensual, and all consuming, Land of Milk and Honey is both a heartsick elegy for a world we are on the verge of losing and vibrant homage to pleasure and appetite. This book swallowed me whole and spit me out changed in the best way: buzzing, astonished, and alive — Rachel Khong A brilliant, all-too-prescient novel. Extraordinary in its prose, vision, and power, Land of Milk and Honey is a triumph of a book to devour now and to treasure through the ages — R.O. Kwon A twelve-course feast for the senses and intellect. C Pam Zhang is one of the most talented novelists writing today, and she has given us a novel that is original and painful and sensuous, a honey-and-acid tasting menu exploring pleasure, loss, sex, power, and resurrection — Sarah Thankam Mathews A dazzling, virtuosic meditation on seeking joy amid tragedy, beauty amid ruin. As hypnotic as it is profound, Land of Milk and Honey showcases C Pam Zhang’s singular talent — Kirstin Chen Gorgeous. What a delicious world Zhang has created-full of so much wonder. I’ll be thinking for a long time about what this novel says about desire and morality; what it means to try to stave off extinction of oneself and world; what happens when we are forced to reckon with the lies we’ve spent years telling ourselves — Kat Chow C Pam Zhang is an intoxicating and fearless prose stylist who seems to invent a new language with each book. . . the incantatory rhythms of desire that power [the novel] serve us horror and pleasure in each bite — Meng Jin Intoxicating, timely, and beautifully written. Pam Zhang’s exquisite prose and prodigious talents are pushed to their brink in her new, dazzling novel — Jamil Jan Kochai