A memoir and also a rallying cry and how-to for having difficult conversations with your parents by New York Times bestselling author and NYT food reporter, former restaurant critic and video host.

THE PARATHA PROJECT:
A Radical Experiment in Talking to My Parents
by Priya Krishna
Little, Brown, Spring 2028
(via the David Black Agency)

In her highly-anticipated debut narrative nonfiction book, Emmy-nominated New York Times journalist and bestselling author of Indian-ish, Priya’s Kitchen Adventures, and Cooking at Home (with David Chang), Priya Krishna turns her incisive eye and her reporter’s mic to the untold story of her own parents. Despite all of the public-facing closeness, a family crisis made Priya realize she never really knew her parents at all. She will do what for many of us would feel impossible and even radical: ask the uncomfortable questions to get to the real answer. In The Paratha Project, Priya challenges every assumption she ever made about her parents’ story—one she always believed was a straightforward trajectory of hardworking immigrants coming to the States, finding professional success, and achieving the American Dream. Question by question, a more complex and revealing history emerges.

As Priya reexamines her family’s past, the book engages deeply universal themes of intergenerational misunderstanding, parental expectation, grief, and the search for belonging. It speaks to anyone who has ever felt both close to and distant from their family. Through explorations of legacy, assimilation, and, of course, food, Priya’s search for truth about her parents becomes a search for truth about herself.

Both a deeply personal narrative and a rallying cry, The Paratha Project invites readers to initiate paradigm-shifting conversations with their own parents before it’s too late. With humor, insight, and emotional clarity—and an addendum of 22 Questions To Ask Your Parents designed to spark expansive, surprising dialogue—the book offers a compelling story and a practical framework for forging deeper intergenerational connection.

Priya Krishna is a food reporter, former restaurant critic, and video host for the New York Times. She is also the New York Times bestselling author of three cookbooks, Priya’s Kitchen Adventures, Cooking at Home (with David Chang), and Indian-ish, the latter of which has sold over 145,000 copies. Prior to working at the Times, Priya was a popular member of the Bon Appetit test kitchen and played a pivotal role in the reckoning on racial injustice at the magazine in 2020. Her work has been nominated for a James Beard Award and an IACP award, and her reported essays have been included in the 2019 and 2021 versions of The Best American Food Writing. She has been nominated for an Emmy for her work hosting the NYT video series “On the Job,” which spotlights the unseen labor of the food industry. Through speaking engagements across the country, her built-in platform of the NYT, and her 500k social media followers, Priya is a definitive voice on food, culture, and identity.