The Cook: A Novel

A slim, bountiful, beautifully written (and gorgeously translated) 'Portrait of the Chef as a Young Man.' --Nancy Klinke, The New York Times Book Review One of BBC Culture's Ten Books to Read this March and The Rumpus Book Club Pick for March Maylis de Kerangal follows up her acclaimed novel The Heart with a dissection of the world of a young Parisian chef More like a poetic biographical essay on a fictional person than a novel, The Cook is a coming-of-age journey centered on Mauro, a young self-taught cook. The story is told by an unnamed female narrator, MauroÆs friend and disciple who we also suspect might be in love with him. Set not only in Paris but in Berlin, Thailand, Burma, and other far-flung places over the course of fifteen years, the book is hyperrealisticùto the point of feeling, at times, like a documentary. It transcends this simplistic form, however, through the lyricism and intensely vivid evocative nature of Maylis de KerangalÆs prose, which conjures moods, sensations, and flavors, as well as the exhausting rigor and sometimes violent abuses of kitchen work. In The Cook, we follow Mauro as he finds his path in life: baking cakes as a child; cooking for his friends as a teenager; a series of studies, jobs, and travels; a failed love affair; a successful business; a virtual nervous breakdown; andùat the endùa rediscovery of his hunger for cooking, his appetite for life.

Author: Maylis de Kerangal

Publisher: Picador

Publication Date: Mar 17, 2020

Number of Pages: 112 pages

Language: English

Binding: Paperback/Fiction

ISBN-10: 125025115X

ISBN-13: 9781250251152