Copy-of-Penguin-Website-desktop-1800×1200-1

Reading lists

Books to read if you love The Bear

C Pam Zhang

A brilliant, near-future fairytale, LAND OF MILK AND HONEY is the most sensuous novel about food I've ever read

It&rsquo;s a captivating story that is alien without being too far-fetched. Zhang&rsquo;s writing is laden with metaphors &ndash; particularly around food and sex &ndash; and while this could risk being overwritten, it fits the story perfectly. It&rsquo;s a genius balance of page-turning storytelling and lyrical prose

Sensual . . . This is a rich novel of ideas, insisting on moral complexity in the end times. It&rsquo;s also a startling prose hymn to food and sex, love and violence, power and resistance

Zhang constructs an unsettling, vertiginous world. Her ornate style reflects the opulence her characters guard so closely, her command of sensory language is impressive, and it’s hard not be mesmerised by prose that is as rich and as startling as the food her protagonist prepares

It's rare to read anything that feels this unique. A richly imagined, ambitious, and haunting novel

Land of Milk and Honey is truly exceptional

Zhang writes with the same fierce artistry, vivid detail and microscopic precision that would make even her own Michelin-star characters proud &ndash; an exceptionally and uniquely written tale of greed, optimism and the pursuit of perfection in the face of scarcity

Land of Milk and Honey is a sharp, sensual piece of art. Zhang writes about the appetites of the body, the uneasy coexistence of scarcity and plenty, and the pleasure and debasement of what is surrendered to survive. This is an incredible exploration of whether it is possible to preserve one's art when answering to a master that is not yourself. When I read I'm always searching for pleasure, for the want, and this book helped me feel something

Land of Milk and Honey is as much a parable as a novel about the murky morals of the 0.1 per cent club. Required reading for them and a tasty treat for everyone else

No one writes like C. Pam Zhang. Ferocious, sensual, and all consuming, Land of Milk and Honey is both a heartsick elegy for a world we are on the verge of losing and vibrant homage to pleasure and appetite. This book swallowed me whole and spit me out changed in the best way: buzzing, astonished, and alive

A brilliant, all-too-prescient novel. Extraordinary in its prose, vision, and power, Land of Milk and Honey is a triumph of a book to devour now and to treasure through the ages

A twelve-course feast for the senses and intellect. C Pam Zhang is one of the most talented novelists writing today, and she has given us a novel that is original and painful and sensuous, a honey-and-acid tasting menu exploring pleasure, loss, sex, power, and resurrection

A dazzling, virtuosic meditation on seeking joy amid tragedy, beauty amid ruin. As hypnotic as it is profound, Land of Milk and Honey showcases C Pam Zhang's singular talent

Gorgeous. What a delicious world Zhang has created-full of so much wonder. I'll be thinking for a long time about what this novel says about desire and morality; what it means to try to stave off extinction of oneself and world; what happens when we are forced to reckon with the lies we've spent years telling ourselves

C Pam Zhang is an intoxicating and fearless prose stylist who seems to invent a new language with each book. . . the incantatory rhythms of desire that power [the novel] serve us horror and pleasure in each bite

Intoxicating, timely, and beautifully written. Pam Zhang's exquisite prose and prodigious talents are pushed to their brink in her new, dazzling novel

An extremely atmospheric novel about the interplay of environmental destruction and class. The bittersweet aftertaste will leave you considering what you&rsquo;d be willing to do &mdash; or resist doing &mdash; to experience the most essential pleasure

A rapturous novel about a young chef whose discovery of pleasure alters her life and, indirectly, the world 
 
'A startling prose hymn to food and sex, love and violence' GUARDIAN 
'Unique, ambitious, haunting' GABRIELLE ZEVIN 
'Truly exceptional' ROXANE GAY 
'Superb' DOUGLAS STUART 
 
A smog has spread, food is disappearing, and a chef escapes her career in London to take a job at a decadent mountaintop colony: an experiment in a new way of living and eating. There, her mysterious employer and his visionary daughter have built a lush new life for the global elite, one that reawakens the chef to the pleasures of taste and touch. Before long, she is pushed to discover the real nature of the project: a startling attempt to reshape the world far beyond the place. 
 
Land of Milk and Honey is a striking novel about food, sex and the intricacies of desire. 
 
'It&rsquo;s hard not be mesmerised by prose that is as rich and as startling as the food her protagonist prepares' OBSERVER 
'An astounding book' CALEB AZUMAH NELSON 
'The most sensual novel about food I have ever read' EMMA DONOGHUE

C Pam Zhang

Praise for Land of Milk and Honey

Truly superb

A brilliant, near-future fairytale, LAND OF MILK AND HONEY is the most sensuous novel about food I've ever read

It’s a captivating story that is alien without being too far-fetched. Zhang’s writing is laden with metaphors – particularly around food and sex – and while this could risk being overw ...

Truly superb

A brilliant, near-future fairytale, LAND OF MILK AND HONEY is the most sensuous novel about food I've ever read

It’s a captivating story that is alien without being too far-fetched. Zhang’s writing is laden with metaphors – particularly around food and sex – and while this could risk being overw ...

Truly superb

A brilliant, near-future fairytale, LAND OF MILK AND HONEY is the most sensuous novel about food I've ever read

It’s a captivating story that is alien without being too far-fetched. Zhang’s writing is laden with metaphors – particularly around food and sex – and while this could risk being overw ...

Articles featuring C Pam Zhang

Books to read if you love The Bear

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter