If an army marches on its stomach, can a cook win the war? A story about food, friendship, loyalty, courage…and what unites us as the world tries to tear us apart.It’s 2049, in a Russian-occupied America ravaged by civil war. Valerie Kipplander—daughter of the assassinated secretary of state—is thrown in jail. When the regime discovers this daughter of privilege is also a talented culinary … culinary student, she’s forced into service in the kitchen of a Russian general whose troops occupy New York.
The general’s mansion proves a prison of a different sort. The head chef has a mysterious past. The Russians have a more insidious agenda than what they’ve promised. The resistance wants her on their side. And one of the guards wants her dead.
Valerie knows she must take a stand. The risks are monumental, the choices few. But how long can she serve the men bent on destroying her beloved country?
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In The Kitchen Brigade, a powerful dystopian imagining of a post-Trump world in which Russia has overtaken America, author Laurie Boris pulls us into unexpected territory with her rich, detailed narrative of the despair, courage, and persistent creativity found amongst a band of female chefs forced to serve their captors.
The year is 2049 and America is reeling from a catastrophic civil war that has not only decimated the country, but allowed Russia to move in as an occupying force, ostensibly to keep the peace amidst chaos. In truth, they are the ruling force—with all the authoritarian oppression and violence one would expect. The times are dark, families are being torn apart; one simple transgression can get a person executed, but still… people have to eat.
Into the New York kitchen of a vaunted Russian general enters Valerie Kipplander, a trained chef who once had dreams of a culinary career. Now imprisoned, struggling to survive after her parents’ deaths and her brother’s disappearance, she is given a choice: cook for the Russian elite or suffer the consequences. She cooks.
Stunned to discover the person running the kitchen is a former teacher, the complex and mysterious Svetlana, Valeria joins the “brigade,” rekindles her love of cooking, and, with a cadre of unnamed women known only by numbers—Two, Three, Four; Valerie is Three— makes delectable meals with even the most meager of supplies. Her job is to keep their oppressors happy and well-fed, a deal with the Devil that keeps her and her cohorts alive.
Into this setting comes the politics of not only the turbulent and terrifying world at large, but the strangely normal minutia involved in cooking, cleaning, and competing in a kitchen. This juxtaposition—between the madness of outside and the mundanity of this insular scullery with its clashing personalities and occasional failed recipes—lends the story both humor and a kind of tender humanity.
Life turns when Valerie meets a Russian General Nikolai Sobolevsky, who is young, handsome and clearly attracted. The mutual stirring she feels takes her into new, dangerous, and very complicated territory that gives her hope but also puts in danger. Seeking, always, to clarify who is the enemy, who are the friends, she begins taking risks and forming alliances that change the narrative of her journey, leading her to step outside the safety of her position for the potential of love and the cause of resistance and freedom.
As one who’s read other books by Laurie Boris, all of which were contemporary, realistic fiction, I was surprised to find her stretch into the arena of dystopian fiction. But, regardless of genre, she skillfully brings the human element and the basic constructs of good storytelling to this dark tale, just as she did when exploring women in baseball (The Call). Regardless of the future timeline and painfully unimaginable setting, it’s the propulsive plot (one that plays cleverly and terrifyingly on the fears of the current Trump era) that pushes the narrative with suspenseful, page-turning developments, each brought to living, breathing life by relatable characters.
A high recommend.