Milk Teeth

Product Information

so honest and hopeful' Financial TimesA girl grows up in the north-east of England amid scarcity, fearing her own desires and feeling undeserving of love. At one point her well-intentioned, poetic but unintuitive boyfriend attempts to sooth her by dismissing her attitude towards food as "not a big deal.

I think about all the years I have struggled to articulate myself in my own language, pushing my words into my body instead.

A book hasn’t tugged on my heart like this since Open Water - if you’re a fan of Open Water then I can almost guarantee you’ll adore Milk Teeth as well. Andrews acutely honed in on the contradictory ways in which you can think (key part here being “think”) you are in control of your body, life, food etc.

not to mention the relationship between the protagonist and her boyfriend - this couple has the worst communication skills in the world? A tale of a girl who has never known an excess of goodness, through mouth-watering food descriptions and bold snapshots of cities in Europe, she begins to learn that there is space for her to be loved, by others, but fundamentally by herself.This is reflected in the language, each sentence feeling like a bevy of sensation without a single word wasted. Andrews makes the case for a life lived abundantly and ardently, full of sensation and pleasure, risk and safety. There are passages of aching sadness for this young woman: lost, self-destructive, longing to understand what she wants and needs from life and to be able to take it.

Comparing herself to the others she observes ‘the way they wanted so openly, without trying to hide it. Their relationship takes her from London to Barcelona and the precipice of a new life, full of sensuality. Milk Teeth explores what happens when the protagonist presses up against those norms, begins to dismantle all her learned behaviours, all her shame, and begins the process of articulating her desires.

Andrews alternates her narrative between past and present, delivering both in short, vivid snapshots. It was so easy to just carry on and on with the reading until, before you know it, the final page has arrived. At the time the author of Saltwater, which I had read and loved, was living in Barcelona, working on her next novel. I remember speaking to Jessica Andrews on a patchy phone connection from my living room in London one cold, dark January night in 2020. They meet again, go dancing and spend the night together sparking a passion that consumes them both.