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Published Oct 2013
320 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publication Information
Set against the backdrop of the Enlightenment, the delectable decadence of Versailles, and the French Revolution, The Last Banquet is an intimate epic that tells the story of one man's quest to know the world through its many and marvelous flavors. Jean-Marie d'Aumout will try anything once, with consequences that are at times mouthwatering and at others fascinatingly macabre (Three Snake Bouillabaisse anyone? Or perhaps some pickled Wolf's Heart?).
When he is not obsessively searching for a new taste d'Aumout is a fast friend, a loving husband, a doting father, and an imaginative lover. He befriends Ben Franklin, corresponds with the Marquis de Sade and Voltaire, becomes a favorite at Versailles, thwarts a peasant uprising, improves upon traditional French methods of contraception, plays an instrumental role in the Corsican War of Independence, and constructs France's finest menagerie. But d'Aumout's every adventurous turn is decided by his at times dark obsession to know all the world's flavors before that world changes irreversibly.
As gripping as Patrick Suskind's Perfume, as gloriously ambitious as Daniel Kehlman's Measuring the World, and as prize-worthy as Andrew Miller's Pure, The Last Banquet is a hugely appealing novel about food and flavor, about the Age of Reason and the ages of man, and our obsessions and about how, if we manage to survive them, they can bequeath us wisdom and consolation in old age.
"Starred Review. Grimwood, a journalist and, under another name, the author of a good deal of genre fiction, has the gift of making a character's sensual pleasures as alive to the reader as to they are to him." - Publishers Weekly
"Studded with bizarre recipes, this vividly entertaining account of a life lived during groundbreaking times is a curious, piquant pleasure." - Kirkus
"The Last Banquet is an astonishing, sensual feast...Grimwood is a damned fine writer." - The Independent (UK)
"A colorful life, brilliantly imagined ... Romance and adventure drip off every page." - The Times (UK)
"Brilliantly evocative ... A cross between Patrick Süskind and Angela Carter."
- The Irish Times
"A sensuous tale of one man's search for the perfect taste ... 100% original."
- Harper's Bazaar
"A world you completely lose yourself in ... French Gatsby territory! Opulent, sensuous, sumptuous." - BBC Radio 2
"The Last Banquet is a tantalizing tale." - The Bookseller
"I loved it. The Last Banquet is a feast for the senses." - Jojo Moyes, author of Me Before You
"Wonderfully enjoyable. Grimwood captures the colour, the decadence and tawdry glamour of Versailles perfectly… The sensual quality reminded me at times of Angela Carter. Masterful." – Carol Birch, author of the Booker Prize-shortlisted Jamrach's Menagerie
This information about The Last Banquet was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Jonathan Grimwood was born in Malta and grew up in the Far East, Britain and Scandinavia. He has written for many newspapers and magazines, including The Guardian, The Times, The Telegraph and The Independent. Writing under the name Jon Courtenay Grimwood, he has won the British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Novel twice, and his work has been published in over fifteen languages. He divides his time between London and Winchester.
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