Mumbai New York Scranton - by Tamara Shopsin (Paperback)

About the Book

"An extraordinarily moving memoir from an iconoclastic new talent--an artist, cook, and New York Times illustrator whose adventures at home and abroad revealed the importance of living life with your eyes wide open. Best known for her witty, sparse illustrations, and as a cook beside her mischievous father in her family's iconic Manhattan restaurant, in Mumbai New York Scranton, Tamara Shopsin chronicles a year in her life when impermanence was the theme. Told in a refreshingly original voice that alternates between tender and brazen, Shopsin recounts her trip to the Far East with her sidekick husband and the harrowing adventure that unfolds after returning home. Blending humor, love, and suspense--and featuring photographs by Jason Fulford--Mumbai New York Scranton reveals and inspires a kaleidoscope of emotions. Shopsin's surprising and affecting tale is guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat"--From publisher's website.

Book Synopsis

Best known for her witty, sparse illustrations, and as a cook beside her mischievous father in her family's iconic Manhattan restaurant, in Mumbai, New York, Scranton Tamara Shopsin chronicles a year in her life when impermanence was the theme. Told in a refreshingly original voice that alternates between tender and brazen, Shopsin recounts her trip to the Far East with her sidekick husband and the harrowing adventure that unfolds after returning home.

Blending humor, love, and suspense--and featuring photographs by Jason Fulford--Mumbai, New York, Scranton reveals and inspires a kaleidoscope of emotions. Shopsin's surprising and affecting tale is guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat.

Review Quotes

"I've been trying to eat my way through Shopsin's menu and realize it's going to be a lifetime endeavor. Now Tamara, Kenny Shopsin's daughter, has written a sprawling travel memoir that ranges all over the planet and which I finished the same day I started reading. Slinging simple declarative sentences that hide sounding depths, and speaking in a quiet voice that you realize too late is the hum of a jet engine, you'll race to Mumbai and back before you have time to process the ride. But oh man will the memory linger."--Patton Oswalt "author of Zombie, Spaceship, Wasteland "

Shopsin tells us this story in a terse, true manner. A beautifully illustrated memoir full of love, with no bullsh*t. --Maira Kalman, author of And the Pursuit of Happiness and The Principles of Uncertainty

Sometimes a friend gives you a piece of writing and you are terrified to read it because what if it turns out your friend is a terrible writer? This was a particular concern with Tamara Shopsin, for not only is she a friend, but a brilliant designer, illustrator, cartoonist, and short order cook whose work in all these areas have long delighted and inspired me. So I am very relieved to report that MUMBAI NEW YORK SCRANTON is as virtuosic as her pancakes, which is to say: perfect, meaningful, and astonishing. --John Hodgman, author of That is All

Tamara Shopsin writes like she illustrates wry and succinct, with judiciously placed punch. She scatters Hansel and Gretel-style crumbs of fantastic, compelling memoir in woods of travelogue. Mumbai, New York, Scranton is muscular, efficient, understated, and surprising. --Gabrielle Hamilton "author of Blood, Bones and Butter "

"Shopsin tells us this story in a terse, true manner. A beautifully illustrated memoir full of love, with no bullsh*t."--Maira Kalman, author of And the Pursuit of Happiness and The Principles of Uncertainty

"Sometimes a friend gives you a piece of writing and you are terrified to read it because what if it turns out your friend is a terrible writer? This was a particular concern with Tamara Shopsin, for not only is she a friend, but a brilliant designer, illustrator, cartoonist, and short order cook whose work in all these areas have long delighted and inspired me. So I am very relieved to report that MUMBAI NEW YORK SCRANTON is as virtuosic as her pancakes, which is to say: perfect, meaningful, and astonishing."--John Hodgman, author of That is All

"Tamara Shopsin writes like she illustrates--wry and succinct, with judiciously placed punch. She scatters Hansel and Gretel-style crumbs of fantastic, compelling memoir in woods of travelogue. Mumbai, New York, Scranton is muscular, efficient, understated, and surprising."--Gabrielle Hamilton "author of Blood, Bones and Butter "

"This (true) story is as dramatic as they come, complete with twin sister, eccentric father and the love of a good man. But because Shopsin is so fundamentally uninterested in being flashy, she gets our attention by not trying to get our attention. "Mumbai New York Scranton" gathers momentum secretly, accruing emotion entirely through food, art, furniture and the achingly mundane details that any survivor will recognize. Could not. Put. It down."--Miranda July "author of No One Belongs Here More Than You and It Chooses You "

""Mumbai New York Scranton" is a fresh, engaging memoir...written in an episodic, stream-of-consciousness style. [Shopsin's] descriptions of life with [her husband] Jason are especially sweet and affecting, while what unfolds after their return to New York is harrowing and tense. Her portrayal of her quirky family, is vivid and loving; as an urban social history spanning the generations, it is sheer pleasure. A terrific and winning memoir, a love letter to a city and a family. Shopsin can add writing to her list of talents along with drawing, crafting, cooking and her egg-cracking prowess."

"[Shopsin's] wholly original work defies categorization. Brimming with observations, details, snippets of conversations and photographs by her husband, Jason Fulford, "Mumbai New York Scranton" is funny, intimate and dear. Shopsin has a laser-like focus for specificity...[her] eye for detail turns the mundane into the sublime and make you want to partake of any adventure she might embark on."

"A charming, rewarding, and unusual narrative."

"Shopsin's dry, staccato sentences are very funny. Her irreverent illustrations and pithy, whimsical writing complement each other perfectly as [she] recounts details that... together limn a creative, playful, wry and resourceful woman in a crisis. Shopsin's compelling and unconventional memoir is terrifying until you realize that, since she's writing about it, there has to be a happy ending."

"Some memoirs are about travel. Others are about surviving a bigger-than-life family. Many of them are about illness, and the rare memoir gives readers a private glimpse of a marriage that's also a creative partnership. Just like one of the fabled items from her father's menu...Shopsin's memoir does them all. Her spare, present-tense narration is interspersed with her drawings...and Fulford's eerily composed photographs...building a larger world through association. Text and image work together in a marriage of complements. Reading the memoir feels like eavesdropping on Shopsin and Fulford as they collaborate."