Tiny Moons: A Year of Eating in Shanghai is a lyrical and nostalgic memoir that explores food, home, and belonging through the lens of childhood memories and experiences in Shanghai. Powles' authentic and warm writing brings to life the relationship between food, culture, and personal identity, making it a book that can be read and reread for pleasure and self-renewal.
Nina Mingya Powles' Tiny Moons: A Year of Eating in Shanghai is a beautifully written memoir that delves into the author's childhood memories of Chinese food and culture, as well as her experiences living in Shanghai as a student. The book is rich with poetic imagery and a distinct, warm voice that makes it a pleasure to read. Powles' writing explores the complex relationship between food, culture, and personal identity, offering a unique perspective on what it means to feel at home in a foreign place. The book is not just about food; it's about the search for meaning and belonging in a world that is both familiar and foreign. Powles' tender observations and recollections of her experiences in Shanghai, as well as her reflections on language and identity, make this a book that will resonate with anyone who has ever felt the pull of two different worlds.
Quick quotes
With original illustrations from the founder and publisher of The Emma Press, Emma Dai’an Wright, the book stems from a blog Powles kept a few years ago, and it traces her childhood memories of Chinese food and culture and her later travels in Shanghai as a student.
Home sickness comes in waves, sometimes leaving me reeling.
There are two sides of myself: one longing for the city, one at peace near the sea.