Penguin Random House South Africa

Categories: Biography & Memoir, Chatto & Windus, International Non-Fiction, Non-Fiction, Adult
ISBN: 9781784745028
Published: April 2025
Page Extent: 288
Format: Hardback
RRP 440.00

Chopping Onions on My Heart

Formats & Editions

Product Image
Hardback
About the book

'An optimistic and wryly funny book... rich with insights' OBSERVER
'I couldn't put it down' RUKMINI IYER
'I loved this book so much... Think: The Body Keeps the Score in practice not theory' ELLA RISBRIDGER

Samantha's mother tongue is dying out. An urgent need to find out more becomes an expansive investigation into how to keep hold of her culture - and when to let it go

The daughter of Iraqi Jewish refugees, Samantha grew up surrounded by the noisy, vivid, hot sounds of Judeo-Iraqi Arabic. A language that's now on the verge of extinction.

The realisation that she won't be able to tell her son he's 'living in the days of the aubergines' or 'chopping onions on my heart' opens the floodgates. The questions...

About the Author

Samantha Ellis

Samantha Ellis

The daughter of Iraqi-Jewish refugees, Samantha Ellis is the author of the books How to be a Heroine and Take Courage and her plays include How to Date a Feminist, Cling to me Like Ivy and Operation Magic Carpet. Her journalism has appeared in the Guardian, TLS, Spectator, Literary Review and more. She worked on the first two Paddington films. She lives in London.

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