In several passages of the Torah, the Hebrews yearned for the land of milk and honey. It was a promised land of abundance, richness, safety, sweetness and healing. It was not an Edenic paradise, but close --- a space of both knowledge and peace. In her gorgeous new novel, C Pam Zhang takes this mythic place into a dystopian future of climate devastation, economic collapse and scientific experimentation. LAND OF MILK AND HONEY is the story of a consuming love affair amid a background of consumption, greed and fear, all set at a table of culinary delight.

"Zhang’s writing is beautiful, a feast of textured and flavored words and passages coming together to tell a sorrowful yet optimistic tale of mistakes and triumphs, families and lovers, the foibles of the past and the possibilities of the future."

Zhang’s unnamed narrator is a 29-year-old chef when the story begins. The world is under a blanket of smog that has killed crops, choked living things and changed the world altogether. No longer can people, much less chefs, find the fresh ingredients necessary for healthy meals, cultural expression or enjoyment. Stranded in England for years but hoping to be allowed to return to California eventually, the chef is scraping together a living and trying to pay off her deceased mother’s debts --- one of the conditions of her return to the U.S. She takes a mysterious job to cook for an “elite research community” isolated on an Italian mountain near the border with France. Her employer is already reviled by many --- a capitalist monster attempting to buy a secure future and conducting secret and immoral work away from prying eyes.

On the mountain, in the land of milk and honey, the chef is provided with food that has not been available to anyone else for years. Fresh fruits and vegetables, newly butchered cuts of meat, spices and condiments are all in her kitchen. Her task at first seems to be to create meals to woo potential investors. But once she is vetted, her employer asks her to assume a new identity --- that of his missing wife, who is presumed dead. The ruse is complicated, but it works.

As Eun-Young, a silent and pious wife and mother, the chef offers delicacies and a glimpse of what survival might be like and taste like for a very select few. Without the financial resources of her employer and his guests, she uses her skills to ensure security, even if only temporary. Her already fraught work is challenged by the science conducted inside the mountain compound and by the increasing manipulations of her employer. But it is her employer’s daughter, Aida, who has the power to save the chef or destroy her.

Aida and the chef, still publicly posing as Aida’s mother, begin a passionate love affair. Zhang’s narrative is intensely sensual, and the descriptions of food and sex are told with the same powerful tone and vivid qualities. Their love is real, but there remains a power imbalance that has life-and-death ramifications. Even as her bond to Aida grows greater, so too do the tensions with her employer and his workers and guests. A tragic accident leads to Aida’s fall (complete with apples, again harkening to Eden), and the chef leaves her love behind in the hopes of finding home.

The chef's tale of the land of milk and honey is told from a distance of decades, lending the book the sweetness that comes with memory to cut the bitterness of experienced trauma. She looks back on her time with Aida and Aida’s father through the lens of tragedy and loss. Yet her life ends with successes and, more importantly, the first healthy mother-daughter relationship of the novel.

Zhang’s writing is beautiful, a feast of textured and flavored words and passages coming together to tell a sorrowful yet optimistic tale of mistakes and triumphs, families and lovers, the foibles of the past and the possibilities of the future. LAND OF MILK AND HONEY is a literary bounty.