The Debt to Pleasure

In this wickedly funny first novel, John Lanchester introduces us to Tarquin Winot, an Englishman of indeterminate age and very determined tastes. This confirmed voluptuary tells his life story through that most sublime of human pleasures -- food. Filled with poisonous opinions and disquisitions on everything from the erotics of dislike to the psychology of a menu, Winot's tale peels away the layers of his past to reveal a sly wit and a quirky philosophy of taste and morality. But gradually, insidiously, the truth becomes unavoidable: Beneath a veneer of self-conscious charm lurks something uncompromisingly sinister. Only a master word-chef could serve up so luscious a satirical novel, and John Lanchester proves his undeniably refined skill in the literary kitchen.

"Addictively entertaining . . . intellectually provocative." (The New York Observer)