Julie Powell thought cooking her way through Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" was the craziest thing she'd ever do - until she embarked on the voyage recounted in her new memoir, "Cleaving". Her marriage challenged by an insane, irresistible love affair, Julie decides to leave town and immerse herself in a new obsession: butchery. She finds her way to Fleischer's, a butcher shop where she buries herself in the details of food. She learns how to break down a side of beef and French a rack of ribs - tough, physical work that only sometimes distracts her from thoughts of afternoon trysts. The camaraderie at Fleischer's leads Julie to search out fellow butchers around the world - from South America to Europe to Africa. At the end of her odyssey, she has learned a new art and perhaps even mastered her unruly heart.

Author Biography

After a misspent youth involving dead-end jobs and questionable decisions, Julie Powell, author of Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously, has found her calling as a writer-cum-butcher. She lives in Long Island City, Queens, when she isn't in Kingston, NY, cutting up animals.