The Telling Room: A Tale of Passion, Revenge and the World's Finest Cheese - Softcover

Michael Paterniti

3.31

5,501 ratings by Goodreads

9781782112778: The Telling Room: A Tale of Passion, Revenge and the World's Finest Cheese

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1782112774 ISBN 13: 9781782112778

Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd, 2014

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In the picturesque Spanish village of Guzm�n, villagers have gathered for centuries in 'the telling room' to share their stories. It was here, in the summer of 2000, that Michael Paterniti listened as Ambrosio Molinos de las Heras spun an odd and compelling tale about a cheese made from an ancient family recipe. Reputed to be among the finest in the world - one bite could conjure long-lost memories. But then, Ambrosio said, things had gone horribly wrong . . .

Paterniti was hooked. Relocating his young family to Guzm�n, he is soon sucked into the heart of an unfolding mystery, a blood feud that includes accusations of betrayal and theft, death threats, and a murder plot. As the village begins to spill its long-held secrets, Paterniti finds himself implicated in the very story he is writing. The Telling Room is as surprising, evocative and wildly entertaining as the world it portrays.

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Review:

"For my money, Paterniti is one of the most expansive and joyful writers around - big-hearted and humane and funny. This book is a wild and amazing ride" (GEORGE SAUNDERS, author of TENTH OF DECEMBER)

"The Telling Room captures the true essence of happiness - but what's more, it captures the fact that food is always central, always present in our memories, when we search for it. For those who doubt that food is our most vital social network, this book demonstrates it unequivocally" (FERRAN ADRIA, chef, El Bulli)

"Michael Paterniti is one of the best living practitioners of the art of literary journalism, able to fully elucidate and humanize the everyday and the epic. In his hands, every subject, every moment of personal or global upheaval, is treated with the same curiosity, respect, empathy, and clear-eyed wisdom" (DAVE EGGERS)

"The list of writers I would read even if they were to write about a piece of cheese is short, but it includes Michael Paterniti. He has proved here that if you love something enough, and pay a passionate-enough attention to it, the whole world can become present in it. That's true of both the cheese and the book" (JOHN JEREMIAH SULLIVAN, author of PULPHEAD)

"The Telling Room is a gorgeous and impassioned monument to the art and mystery of storytelling. It is rich, funny, humane, devastating, and beautiful. It made me want to applaud, it made me want to cry, it made me want to move to Spain. Michael Paterniti is a genius" (ELIZABETH GILBERT, author of EAT, PRAY, LOVE)

"Elegant, strange, funny, and insightful, The Telling Room is a marvelous tale and a joyful read, a trip into a world peopled by some of the most remarkable characters - and, yes, cheese - in memory" (SUSAN ORLEAN, author of THE ORCHID THIEF)

"An amazing achievement. The Telling Room is an inspired, masterly epic that expands and refigures the parameters of the storyteller's art" (WELLS TOWER, author of EVERYTHING RAVAGED, EVERYTHING BURNED)

"Few writers can write about the taste of food with Paterniti's vibrancy and precision... [He] is a master of finding and telling great stories (the finding, for most writers, often being as difficult as the telling) that appear to be about something small, such as cheese, but are actually about something far larger-in this case, the whole of human existence... As much as The Telling Room is about a Spaniard's quest to create a cheese that embodies all the love and pain and joy he's ever known, it's also the story of a writer's quest to channel that obsession into the perfect story" (Esquire)

"Paterniti immerses you in an immersion-friendly milieu of sun-baked highland plateaus, argumentative village rustics and beguiling old ways... There's no resisting the infectious writerly glee" (New York Times)

"A masterly, joyous piece of non-fiction storytelling that revels in its subject and provides a strangely gripping and moving tale about life, love, friendship, family, place - and cheese" (Financial Times)

Book Description:

'Rich, funny, humane, devastating and beautiful. It made me want to applaud, it made me want to cry, it made me want to move to Spain' ELIZABETH GILBERT

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