THE LAST SWEET BITE

A powerful exploration of cuisine in conflict zone countries, shining a light on the resilience of cultures struggling to preserve their traditional recipes in the midst of war, genocide, and violence.

As a human rights investigator, Michael Shaikh has visited some of the most conflict-ridden regions of the world, from Rohingya refugee camps housing a million displaced victims, to the heart of the brutal civil war in Sri Lanka, to Bolivia, the epicenter of the U.S. "war on drugs." Everywhere he has worked, he has seen the vital role of culinary culture to a community's sense of history and identity. The Last Sweet Bite follows Shaikh's time in conflict zones across the globe to tell the story of how humanity's appetite for violence shapes what we eat and how food policy can become a tool of subjugation by aggressors. For the Uyghur minority it was the disappearance of their bakeries as China pursued a policy of "Sinicization," for indigenous Bolivians it was the razing of their coca fields, a vital ingredient in traditional cooking, but a casualty of a America's fight against the illicit drug trade. For the Rohingya, it was their mass displacement to another country, leaving behind their key ingredients. But food stories can also tell stories of resilience as well as tragedy. Shaikh also spends time with the people who are resisting, by keeping their foods and their traditions alive in diasporic communities throughout the globe, or creating new recipes in the face of continued hardship. From native reservations in the United States to growing immigrant enclaves across the globe, activists, chefs, and cooks see food as a form of cultural reclamation with the power to keep a culture alive. Through razor-sharp research, authentic recipes, and firsthand accounts from those who have lived through these tumultuous times, Shaikh deftly unpacks the histories of countries with conflict zones, not only offering the reader an insider's perspective of the political, geographical, and everyday strife that has been pervading them for decades, but shining a spotlight on the remnants and perseverance of the cultures that they're struggling to hold onto. Michael Shaikh is a climate and human rights activist and writer. He has investigated war crimes for organizations like the United Nations and Human Rights Watch. He has written for LitHub and contributed commentary to The New York Times, The Economist, The Financial Times, BBC, VICE, Foreign Policy, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, and PBS Newshour Shaikh is currently in discussion with Apple TV for an accompanying documentary. He lives in Brooklyn.