Breaking Bread: Essays from New England on Food, Hunger, and Family

More local color than a steamed lobster wearing wild blueberry bracelets, along with a mess of wistful nostalgia for any reader raised in Maine or New England.” —Portland Press Herald

Nearly 70 renowned New England writers gather round the table to talk food and how it sustains us—mind, body, and soul

An award-winning collection of essays by internationally recognized and beloved foodies, Breaking Bread celebrates local foods, family, and community, while exploring how what’s on our plates engages with what’s off: grief, pleasure, love, ethics, race, and class.

Here, you’ll find reflections from top literary talents and food writers like

• Award-winning novelist Lily King on connecting with her children over a tweaked chocolate chip cookie recipe
• Pulitzer Prize recipient Richard Russo on the Italian soup his mother snubbed that he came to enjoy
• Coauthor of Mad Honey Jennifer Finney Boylan on how cheese pizza holds her family together through the good and the bad
• Coauthor of About Grief Brian Shuff on how greasy takeout can be life-giving food for the grieving soul
• Award-winning writer Ron Currie on the childhood shame—and adult pride—of your mother being a “lunch lady”
• Author and homesteader Margaret Hathaway on building a community cookbook to bring food and family together in the early days of COVID-19