Synopses & Reviews
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 mans quest to know the world through its many and marvelous flavors. Jean-Marie dAumout 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 dAumout 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 Frances finest menagerie. But dAumouts every adventurous turn is decided by his at times dark obsession to know all the worlds flavors before that world changes irreversibly.
As gripping as Patrick Suskinds Perfume, as gloriously ambitious as Daniel Kehlmans Measuring the World, and as prize-worthy as Andrew Millers 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.
Review
“The Last Banquet is an astonishing, sensual feast...Grimwood is a damned fine writer.”
—The Independent
“The Last Banquet is a tantalizing tale.”
—The Bookseller
“A sensuous tale of one mans search for the perfect taste . . . 100% original.”
—Sam Baker, Harpers Bazaar
“A world you completely lose yourself in . . . French Gatsby territory! Opulent, sensuous, sumptuous.”
—BBC Radio 2
“Grimwood is a name to watch.”
— The Times
About the Author
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.