The Second Worst Restaurant in France (Hardcover)

Paul Stewart has returned to Scotland to continue his successful career. His agent and girlfriend, Gloria, has arranged for him to write The Philosophy of Food in Six Easy Chapters, a project he relishes but that will have to be delivered in six months. It is not going well, as Paul finds his domestic circumstances unsuited to concentrated hard work: Gloria has now moved in with him (not specifically invited) and has brought with her two extremely vocal and demanding Siamese cats. The cats give Paul no peace. Beginning to worry that The Philosophy of Food will never be written Paul calls on the aid of his cousin, Chloe, who suggests a radical course of action. She has taken a six-month lease on a house in a French village not far from Poitiers and invites him to join her there and get the book finished in peace. He needs no second bidding and it is not long before he escapes to France. Once there, however, Paul finds his fortunes tangled up with the fate of one eating establishment in the village: the infamous Second Worst Restaurant in France ...

General

Imprint:	Birlinn
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	May 2019
Authors:	Alexander McCall Smith
Dimensions:	216 x 138 x 28mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	256
ISBN-13:	978-1-84697-421-2
Categories:	Books > Fiction > General & literary fiction > Modern fiction Books > Sport & Leisure > Humour > General
LSN:	1-84697-421-6
Barcode:	9781846974212

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My review

Mon, 21 Oct 2019 | Review by: Breakaway R.

A book full of ‘joie de vivre’ Paul Stuart is a food writer living and working in Edinburgh. His girlfriend, Gloria, introduces her two Siamese cats into his apartment. This was not a good move. Paul’s distant cousin, Chloe, breezes in and offers him the use of an empty, furnished, apartment belonging to her so he can continue to write his book, “The Philosophy Of Food’ without the distraction of the cats. Paul accepts gladly, but finds the noisy neighbours upstairs too much for him and retreats back to his own place. Gloria, meanwhile, accepts that her relationship with Paul is not working quite the way it should and moves back, with cats, to her own apartment. Chloe tells Paul she has rented a house near Poitiers, in France, for a few months and invites him to join her there. Maybe he will find more inspiration, as well as peace and quiet, for his new book? He joins Chloe in France and soon becomes absorbed in the life of the small village. He meets Chloe’s landladies, twin sisters Annabelle and Therese, who live nearby and who also own a small restaurant in the village, reputed to be the second-worst restaurant in France. Little did Paul know how much this restaurant and all that went on inside it would affect his stay. In a departure from his other series, Alexander McCall Smith gives us a second helping of Paul Stuart’s exploits. The first being ‘My Italian Bulldozer’ set in Tuscany. This book certainly has all the author’s usual ingredients of humour, pathos, understanding of human nature and, of course, a healthy dose of philosophy. His characters are easy to identify with, especially Chloe who comes across as a woman who is on top of every situation, ready to march in and ‘get things done’ but who, nevertheless, can still occasionally be fragile. His French sisters are charming and slightly eccentric. He has also managed to capture the essence of France in his description of life in this rural community. Highly recommended. Mr Bumblebee Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book for review.

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