MESHI

For Katherine Tamiko Arguile, the Japanese food her mother cooked was a portal to a part of her that sometimes felt very far away. In Japan, food is never just food: it expresses a complex and fascinating history, tied to tradition and spirituality that has endured for centuries.

Now, as she recreates the meals of her childhood, Katherine untangles the threads of meaning, memory and ritual woven through every glistening bowl of rice, every tender slice of sashimi and each steaming cup of green tea.

With rich, visceral prose, vivid insight and emotional honesty, Meshi ('something that is eaten') reveals the culture and spirit infused into Japanese food, one of the most beloved cuisines on the planet.

Born and raised in Tokyo, Katherine Tamiko Arguile is a Japanese-British-Australian arts journalist and author. She migrated from London to Adelaide in 2008, where she now lives beside the sea. A graduate of Cambridge University, she has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Adelaide. Her award-winning short stories have been published in anthologies in the UK and in Australia and her debut novel, The Things She Owned, was published in 2020.