44 Scotland Street: 1

Alexander McCall Smith

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0349118973 ISBN 13: 9780349118970

Publisher: Abacus, 2005

The story revolves around the comings and goings at No. 44 Scotland Street, a fictitious building in a real street in Edinburgh. Immediately recognisable are the Edinburgh chartered surveyor, stalwart of the Conservative Association, who dreams of membership of Scotland's most exclusive golf club. We have the pushy Stockbridge mother, and her prodigiously talented five-year-old son, who is making good progress with the saxophone and with his Italian. Then there is Domenica Macdonald who is that type of Edinburgh lady who sees herself as a citizen of a broader intellectual world.
In McCall Smith's hands such characters retain charm and novelty, simultaneously arousing both mirth and empathy. 44 Scotland Street is vintage McCall Smith, tackling issues of trust and honesty, snobbery and hypocrisy, love and loss, but all with great lightness of touch. Clever, elegant and funny, this is a novel that provides huge entertainment but which is underpinned by the moral dilemmas of everyday life and the characters' struggles to resolve them.

Review:

As charming as the bohemian street in which it's set. (SCOTTISH DAILY RECORD)

It is hard to think of a contemporary writer more genuinely engaging...[his] novels are also extremely funny: I find it impossible to think about them without smiling (Craig Brown, MAIL ON SUNDAY)

A treasure of a writer whose books deserve immediate devouring (Marcel Berlins, GUARDIAN)

a hilarious yet sharply insightful tale of middle-class Edinburgh ... a joyous, charming portrait of city life and human foibles (SUNDAY EXPRESS)

Book Description:

* The new novel from Alexander McCall Smith, full of his trademark humour and wisdom.