The Olive Branch: Book Presentation by Alexander Stesin

What can a dish forbidden from being eaten in a restaurant dining room tell us about the world? Or a fish that must be cooked over apricot branches and come from the Tigris—even if you are in New Jersey? In The Olive Branch, New York is revealed through food, immigrant neighborhoods, and people nearly invisible in the metropolis: Assyrians, Circassians, Yazidis, Iraqi Mandaeans, and Romaniote Jews. It is a book about memory, disappearing cultures, and the modern Middle East—war, enmity, and the search for what might still connect people. A conversation with the author about food, memory, and translating from Farsi. Moderated by Alexandra Livergant Age limit: 18+