Digesting India

by Zac O'Yeah

DescriptionDigesting India is a wildly entertaining and informative adventure through thelandscapes of Indian culinary art, as explored by Zac O’Yeah, a ScandinavianoriginIndian novelist with a readiness to stomach anything and everythingthat grows or walks on earth. Well, almost. This book combines the threethings that O’Yeah loves most about life—eating, drinking and travelling—ina delightful romp based on thirty years of trying to understand India throughits food culture.This fast-paced story of a traveller’s untiring quest for new cultural andculinary experiences is as intriguing as it is profound, and you might say itcaptures India in a nutshell—a very big, coconut-sized one. Here we learnabout dishes that we may never have heard of, and food habits we never knewexisted, such as when we accompany O’Yeah on a ‘spareparts’ tour thatbegins in Shivajinagar, the slaughterhouse area of Bengaluru. As we followhim on a winding journey through India, he takes us through the pleasuresof drinking beer in Bengaluru (slang for ‘beer galore’), toddy in Kerala, andeating boiled vegetables and masala-less curries in Sevagram, the Mahatma’sashram in Maharashtra, to prepare him for the rich red ‘lal maas’ in royalRajasthan. He discovers Goa’s literati culture sipping cashew fenny withNobel laureate Orhan Pahmuk and Amitav Ghosh, finds two of his favouritefoods—mushrooms and cheese—in Bhutan’s ‘shamudatsi’, and, in a delightfuldigression, finds out—while still on earth—what astronauts eat, and moreimportantly, drink, in outer space.Digesting India is a rollicking read—a multi-course meal full of happydiscoveries. Read it as vicarious fun in your armchair, carry it as an inspiringtravel companion, or use it to impress your friends with thousands ofinteresting, surprising facts about local foods and the many places they comefrom.

350 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 20, 2023

About the author

Zac O’Yeah used to work at a theatre in Gothenburg, Sweden – the harbor town where his detective novel “Once Upon A Time In Scandinavistan” (Hachette India, 2010; originally published in Swedish as “Tandooriälgen” in 2006) is set – and toured with a pop group until he retired early at 25 and came to India.

Since then he has published eleven books in Swedish, many of them important bestsellers – including the Gandhi-biography “Mahatma!” which was short-listed for the August Prize 2008 for best nonfiction book of the year. His most recent book in Swedish is the conspiracy thriller “Summan av kardemumman” (2009; paperback in 2010). He is currently working on a new thriller and a film project.

He is also a literary critic (rather grumpy at that), cultural feature writer and columnist, currently writing on crime fiction in Mint Lounge, the weekend supplement of the Indian edition of Wall Street Journal, and reviewing books in Deccan Herald’s Sunday supplement, and contributing occasionally to the travel magazine Outlook Traveller, plus now and then in major Swedish magazines and newspapers.

Zac O’Yeah is also a translator specializing in introducing selections of Indian writing – such as Pankaj Mishra, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and others – to Swedish readers. He has had a long involvement with theatre in as a playwright, director, designer, producer, and occasional performer.

Furthermore, he has been a cultural consultant for several bilateral exchange projects involving Swedish and Indian writers, translators, theatre workers and many others who toil in the fields of art. These projects have included, for instance, developing theatre for children and young people. Previous jobs include International Secretary of the Swedish Writers’ Union (1998-2000), dance lighting designer (1988-1992) and dish washer in a seedy pizzeria in Kungsportsavenyn (1986-1987).