By Predrag Matvejević. Translated by Christina Pribićević-Zorić
ISBN: 978-1-912545-094
Winner of the Premio Internazionale De Lollis (2009)
Our Daily Bread charmingly weaves together the customs, rituals, anecdotes, legends and sayings that tell the story of bread, from Mesopotamia, through Egypt, to the Far East, ancient Greece, ancient Rome, and the New World.
Matvejević shows how bread is depicted in literature and art (with beautiful illustrations) and examines especially closely the role of bread in the major world religions, drawing from the Bible, Talmud and Quran, but also at various apocryphal texts.
In his seventh and last chapter, his narrative moves to the personal, explaining what motivated him to write this book; the lean years of his childhood during World War II and his father’s detention in a German concentration camp. Warning about the pending threat of hunger in the “developed world,” the book fittingly ends with a quote from the Russian anarchist Pyotr Kropotkin: “The question of bread must take precedence over all other questions.”
“…this small but lingeringly powerful book… Our Daily Bread contains some profound ideas about life. It is both a celebration of and a lament for bread, as the author meanders through connections to history, art and literature.”
Anne Sebba, The Spectator
“Our Daily Bread, here in a fluid translation by Christina Pribichevich-Zorić, helps us both to put this essential fare in context and to enjoy it more. For alongside what is essentially a history of the world in bread sit mouth-watering descriptions of a foodstuff “which engages all our senses. . .Above all, this is a humane book”
Fiona Rintoul, The Herald
Vtial Food and Potent Symbol
“Christians hardly need reminding of the key place of bread in our own religion, but Predrag Matvejević consders its place in Judaism and Islam as well, in many differnet contexts, worship, pilgramage and the lives of particular saints.”
Rt Rev Lord Harries, The Church Times
“After reading Our Daily Bread, Predrag Matvejević’s self-declared meditation on the subject, I will be seeing bread yet again in a different light. Brought to us by Istros Books in a sensitive translation by Christina Pribichevich-Zorić, the late Croatian author and scholar’s book-length reflection on this universal foodstuff is a thing of quiet beauty, a serious yet joyful celebration of something most of us probably take for granted. Crossing centuries and continents, Matvejević traces the history of bread and its cultural significance, evoking the names of gods, saints, poets and philosophers to reveal how entire civilisations have been built on grain.”
Eleanor Updegraff, The Monthly Booking
