A Recipe for Family

Perfect for fans of Meg Mason and Sally Hepworth; a powerful and heart-rending story about how food connects us and assumptions divide us – and how true family can come from where you least expect it.

Things are getting slippery for Stella. With her husband away she’s juggling a full-time job, a tricky stepdaughter and a relentless four-year-old – all while trying to find her footing in her spouse’s shiny world. Joining the throng of local mothers, she reluctantly hires an au pair in the hope that it will lighten the load.

Stella’s mother-in-law, Elise, thinks this is a rotten idea. An industrial chemist and staunch feminist, she finds the ethical murkiness surrounding the au pair solution difficult to swallow. But she’s promised her son not to meddle, has her own career battles to slay and ghosts of her own past to contend with.

For Ava, life in Sydney as an au pair could help fill the void left by the loss of her mother. With her family recipes in her hand and hope in her heart, she sets off to reinvent herself in a place far away.

Three women, drawn together by impossible circumstances, will discover that the greatest comfort can often be found in the mess.

Praise for A Recipe for Family

‘A powerful and hilarious take on the many hurdles women face and how we can overcome them together. Brimming with heart and deliciously wise, A Recipe for Family made me want to go back for seconds.’
Sally Hepworth, author of The Younger Wife
 
‘An elegant depiction of three generations of female overwhelm. A Recipe For Family is powerful, slyly funny, and studded with sharp observations about the impossible expectations of contemporary motherhood. The kind of storytelling that elicits affirming nods, snort-laughs, and the occasional tear.’
Holly Wainwright, author of I Give My Marriage a Year

‘Tori Haschka’s A Recipe for Family is an antidote to the rigours of 2020s parenting, filled with solidarity, laugh-out-loud moments, and delectable page-turning tension.’
Victoria Brookman, author of Burnt Out

‘Like your favourite recipe, this novel is deliciously fun to consume but also filled with nourishing wisdom about surviving the burdens and joys of caring for others. Brimming with humour and compassion for how we all fail daily in ways big and small, this wonderful novel just might help you figure out how not to drown in the deluge.’ Ceridwen Dovey, author of Life after Truth
 

“'A powerful and hilarious take on the many hurdles women face and how we can overcome them together. Brimming with heart and deliciously wise, A Recipe for Family made me want to go back for seconds.'”

A Recipe For Family is food writer Tori Haschka's second novel. It brims with beautiful descriptions of food and the role that it plays in our lives. Each chapter heading, starting with Tepid Peppermint Tea and ending with Hot Tea, references the name of a recipe cooked, consumed or talked about in the chapter. A mother and son discuss the future over a cinnamon toast sandwich; roast chicken and potatoes create a sense of welcome, belonging and comfort for a stranger far from home; and a red lentil dahl has repercussions that are devastating rather than delicious. Haschka's depiction of contemporary motherhood is startlingly raw and real as the novel centres on the daily life of protagonist Stella as she balances work, life and family. The novel features the cutthroat world of online local community forums with all their differing and at times barbed opinions, thinly veiled behind the username 'Anon'-or not veiled at all. The story includes domestic scenarios familiar to any parent, from dinner parties to infectious diseases, all of which must be juggled with maintaining a life of one's own. Perfect for fans of Marian Keyes, Dolly Alderton or Haschka's first novel Grace Under Pressure, A Recipe for Family serves up a main course of reality with a side of humour, leaving the reader satiated. Kate Frawley is a bookseller and a manager at The Sun Bookshop.

Tori Haschka is a Sydney based author, food writer and mum of two. Her articles have featured in Grazia, The Times, the Guardian, Mammamia and the Sydney Morning Herald and her blog eatori.com was ranked by Saveur as one of the five best food and travel blogs in the world. Grace Under Pressure is her first novel.

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