description: Tarquin Winot - hedonist, food obsessive, ironist and snob - travels a circuitous route from the Hotel Splendide in Portsmouth to his cottage in Provence. Along the way he tells the story of his childhood and beyond through a series of delectable menus, organized by season. But this is no ordinary cookbook, and as we are drawn into Tarquin's world, a far more sinister mission slowly reveals itself...Winner of the 1996 Whitbread First Novel Award, John Lanchester's The Debt to Pleasure is a wickedly funny ode to food; an erotic and sensual culinary journey. Its elegant, intelligent and unhinged narrator is nothing less than a work of art himself.
language: English
title: The Debt to Pleasure Reading Group Guide
titlecomplete: The Debt to Pleasure Reading Group Guide
characters: Tarquin Winot, Mitthaug, Bartholomew Winot, Mary-Theresa, Laura Tavistock, Mrs. Willoughby, Hywl Tavistock, Mrs. Winot, Mr. Winot
genres: France, Mystery, Food, Humor, Novels, Literature, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Cooking, Fiction
ratings_count: 2931
places: France, England
awards: awardedAt: 820483200000
name: Whitbread Award
category: First Novel, awardedAt: 852105600000
name: Hawthornden Prize, awardedAt: 820483200000
name: Betty Trask Award
publisher: Owl Books (NY)