Hunting and Gathering - Softcover

Gavalda, Anna

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0701179767 ISBN 13: 9780701179762

Publisher: Chatto & Windus, 2006

Synopsis

Anna Gavalda combines a genius for storytelling with vivid, exquisite writing and characters who leap from the pages of this irresistible novel, which has sold half a million copies in France, and is being published in thirty countries. It is the captivating, quirky, funny, tenderly ironic story of a collection of misfits in contemporary Paris - a near-anorexic artist, a chef, his granny, and a sad-sack aristocrat - who together become something more than the sum of their parts and make for a perfect novel. Camille is doing her best to disappear. She barely eats, works at night as a cleaner, and lives in a tiny attic room. Philibert Marquet de La Durbelliere is a stammering, erudite aristocrat who sells postcards outside a museum. One evening, he overcomes his own excruciating reticence to rescue Camille, unconscious, from her freezing garret, and instal her in the large, ornate apartment he is caretaking downstairs. He already has an unlikely flatmate, the foul-mouthed, talented working-class young chef, Franck, who is made more obnoxious by guilt about the beloved grandmother he's had to put in a home. Together, this curious, damaged little quartet may be able to face the world...Gorgeously original, full of wry humour and razor-sharp observation, redolent of Paris, its foibles, its food, and its neglected corners, "Hunting and Gathering" is a universal story about despair, love, and the virtues of ensemble-playing in a naughty world. It's a big novel that you will not want to put down.

About this title

Review:

'Enjoyable, well-paced and engaging.’ -- Lucille Houston, TLS

You can only wonder how good this brilliant novel must be in its original French -- Eve

From the Publisher:

Already a bestseller in several countries, this enchanting novel about a collection of misfits in Paris is quirky, poignant and unputdownable - Gavalda is a new young literary star.

About this edition

• Publisher: Chatto & Windus
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0701179767
• ISBN 13: 9780701179762
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 480