Bird Milk & Mosquito Bones

A Memoir

From a wry, insightful, and very funny new voice, here is one woman’s peripatetic search for home, from Kashmir to England to Saudi Arabia to Michigan to Rome and, finally, to Los Angeles.

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“Riotously funny . . . The Secret Garden meets Nora Ephron . . . A book of enormous heart, humor, and insight that will leave readers wanting more of Priyanka Mattoo’s company.” BookPage

“It’s wry, touching, warm; it feels like being in the company of your most interesting friend.” —Claire Cameron, Interview magazine

“Distinguished by its sharp wit and beating heart, this is a salve for wanderers of all stripes.”
Publishers Weekly

“Wry and moving.” —Mira Sethi, Wall Street Journal

“I was enchanted by Mattoo’s Bird Milk & Mosquito Bones, a remarkably vivid, moving epic of displacement and its aftermath. With brio, insight, and great warmth, this exceptional debut offers, as art can, a lasting home.”
R. O. Kwon, author of Exhibit

“The magic of Bird Milk & Mosquito Bones is that it takes us all over the world but always feels like it could be happening right next door. Priyanka Mattoo’s writing is steady and true and warm but also exquisitely insightful and precise. Her family is now our family. Her stories are a part of us. This book is an absolute treasure.”
—Jami Attenberg, author of I Came All This Way to Meet You

Priyanka Mattoo has recreated the beloved, intoxicating Kashmir of her childhood in this beautiful memoir, and in doing so, renders the place immortal. I would follow Mattoo to the ends of the earth, because she would know what to eat there, and how to make a friend, and then sit me down and tell me a story.”
—Emma Straub, author of This Time Tomorrow

Priyanka Mattoo is the author of the memoir Bird Milk & Mosquito Bones (Knopf, June 2024).

She was formerly an agent at UTA and WME, as well as Jack Black’s partner at their production company, Electric Dynamite. Priyanka co-founded EARIOS, the women-led podcast network, and co-hosted its critically-acclaimed beauty/wellness podcast, Foxy Browns.

Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Vulture, and The Hairpin, and her film work in festivals from Sundance to Cannes. She was raised in India, England, and Saudi Arabia before moving to the U.S. in high school, and holds degrees in Italian and Law from the University of Michigan.

Priyanka is the recipient of a MacDowell fellowship, and her piece How to Extract a Mother’s Rogan Josh Recipe Over Zoom was noted in Best American Food Writing. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and kids.

ABOUT PRIYANKA

Photo: Beowulf Sheehan

WRITING

Explore Priyanka’s other writing below.

CONTACT

FILM/TV | BEN ROWE | GRANDVIEW

BOOKS | ERIN MALONE | WME

PUBLICITY | SARAH NEW | KNOPF