Praise for Table of Gods.
After writing for almost six years, I completed the manuscript for Table of Gods in December 2024.* In January, I sent it to a dozen Assyriologists and culinary historians, and here are my first blurbs (more are coming).
ECKART FRAHM
Professor of Assyriology at Yale University and author of Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World's First Empire
"Arim Hawsho has managed to combine well researched historical information with his own personal take on ancient Assyria, its culture, and its culinary traditions."
MICHAEL W. TWITTY
Culinary historian and James Beard Award-winning author of The Cooking Gene
"Arim Hawsho has captured the magic of the continued existence of Assyrians as a people, and how this existence courses through his veins."
SIMO PARPOLA
Professor Emeritus of Assyriology at the University of Helsinki
"It seems to me that in praising the deeds of the Sargonid kings, Arim Hawsho has exceeded even the Assyrian scribes."
*The manuscript is still not 100 percent completed. I’m currently working myself through all beta readers’ comments. Mostly making tweaks to improve flow, consistency, and readability. If you were one of the beta readers, thank you for your help!
New design iterations
In January, I revealed the book cover (though it’s not set in clay yet). In February, we’ve continued to work on the design, trying new cover tweaks (which I wasn’t too fond of) and elaborating on the interior design.
We’re currently considering whether to use illustrations in the book. Here are some examples.
So, after deciding on the cover and interior design, the book will be ready to print? For most books, yes. But not for Table of Gods. I didn’t spend six years working on this book only to see how it looks AFTER it’s printed. Being a natural-born control freak, I want (need) to know every detail before it goes to print.
That means we’re going to print test the cover to see how well the cover paper we choose mimics a clay tablet. But also how deep the debossing of the cuneiform signs should be. We’re talking millimeters up or down, but I believe in the details. When many small details come together, they form something significant.
We’re also going to test print the food photography on different art papers before deciding which to use. Here too, the differences will be small yet important. If you haven’t seen a book printed with art paper before, you’re going to be stunned. It’s so beautiful you could take the page out of the book and hang it as a poster.
A landscape photograph featuring two Sumerian tavern keepers about to take a sip of date beer, which is one of the recipes from the book.
Apart from this, we’ll also test print the entire book with the correct paper, exact number of pages, and cover. That way I can get the feel of the entire thing. How it feels in my hands, how it looks on a table, how much it weighs, and so on.
Only when I’m satisfied with all these details will I print the book. Speaking of printing, I have something big to reveal.
The launch date is set!
The most frequently asked question I’ve received in my life is, “When will the book be published?”
“Soon,” I’ve answered for several years.
Making something great takes time. And despite the outside pressure to release the book, I haven’t budged on my principles to make it as great as I possibly can. I could have released Table of Gods three years back. It was good enough. But it wasn’t great.
After six years of waking up, sleeping, and dreaming of Table of Gods, now is the first time I actually feel that it won’t get much better. I could work on it for six more years and it would probably become different. But better? I’m not so sure.
That’s why I’ve set the date and made it official so that I can’t back out of it (force majeure exceptions only). On September 2, 2025, you will be able to pre-order your copy of Table of Gods. Everyone who pre-orders will get a special deal. So mark this date in your calendar :)