num_pages: 272
description: Winner of the Whitbread Award for Best First Novel and a New York Times Notable Book , John Lanchester's The Debt to Pleasure is a wickedly funny ode to food.Traveling from Portsmouth to the south of France, Tarquin Winot, the book's snobbish narrator, instructs us in his philosophy on everything from the erotics of dislike to the psychology of the menu. Under the guise of completing a cookbook, Winot is in fact on a much more sinister mission that only gradually comes to light.
language: English
title: The Debt to Pleasure
titlecomplete: The Debt to Pleasure
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: Picador