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We Thought They'd Never Leave: Musings on Food and Family

by Tony Shalhoub

A family history served around the table

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AlbakiReads Editorial

A family history served around the table

Tony Shalhoub’s memoir connects four generations of family stories with the meals and rituals that have shaped a Lebanese American household in Wisconsin. Its frame is an annual Door County reunion, where a large extended family gathers for home cooking, card games, and shared memories. The book also looks back to an orphaned Lebanese boy’s experience of wartime hunger and follows the family traditions carried into later generations. Twenty recipes—from stuffed grape leaves and tabbouleh to chili and cherry pie—give the account a practical culinary thread alongside its reflections on growing up, parenthood, and keeping a family gathering alive.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in memoirs centered on family history and intergenerational traditions
  • Readers curious about Lebanese American foodways and family recipes
  • Readers who enjoy personal accounts of family gatherings and domestic life

Themes

Family history and memoryLebanese American identity and traditionFood and family ritualParenthood and inheritance

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

From Emmy, Tony, and Golden Globe winner Tony Shalhoub comes a delightful, heartfelt memoir about food, family, recipes, and the stories we pass down around the table.

Every summer for over five decades, more than fifty members of the Shalhoub family have gathered in Door County, Wisconsin, for a week of home-cooked meals, fiercely competitive card games, old stories, new memories, and just enough chaos to keep things interesting.

Written with his daughter Josie Adams, We Thought They'd Never Leave is Tony Shalhoub's warm and deeply personal reflection on the people who shaped him. Through stories spanning four generations--from an orphaned Lebanese boy who survived wartime hunger to the sprawling family he would one day help create--Tony traces the Lebanese American family traditions, meals, and rituals that continue to bring the Shalhoubs back together year after year.

Along the way, the beloved actor known for Monk and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel reflects on growing up as one of ten children in a lively Lebanese American household in Green Bay, Wisconsin; navigating family life, work, and parenthood; and helping preserve a reunion that has become a beloved family institution. Also included are twenty treasured family recipes, ranging from stuffed grape leaves and tabbouleh to Midwestern chili and cherry pie.

Filled with unforgettable characters, deeply moving stories, and Tony's signature humor, We Thought They'd Never Leave is an invitation to join the Shalhoub table, where everyone has an opinion, everyone is expected to pitch in, and there's always room for one more.
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