Series |
Library of Rassegna iberistica
Edited book | Stories Come to Matter: Water, Food, and other Entanglements
Chapter | To Steal a Fish
To Steal a Fish
Abstract
In Deborah Levy’s novel Hot Milk, Sofia escorts her mother to Spain in search of a cure for her mother’s paralysis, only for the doctor to suggest a cure for her. To remedy her lack of courage, the doctor prescribes that she steals a fish. At the market she eyes a tuna, but pronounces it ‘too big’, before she slips a dorado into her basket. But what else might it mean to steal a fish? And is tuna truly ‘too big’ to steal? In response to these questions, this essay approaches the topic of how ‘stories come to matter’ by weaving together notes about swimming with Atlantic bluefin tuna together with reflections on storytelling and structure, matter and meaning.
Submitted: Nov. 7, 2024 | Accepted: Dec. 5, 2024 | Published May 9, 2025 | Language: en
Keywords Cuisine • Storytelling • The Mediterranean Sea • Bluefin tuna • Extinction • Fish ranches • Malta
Copyright © 2025 L. Sasha Gora. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-906-1/004
