Sweetmeat Book

Only the most discerning gourmands dine at the Delphi--an oasis of sensual delights, situated incongruously next to Tower Bridge, and presided over by Bohemond, the capital's heaviest chef. But celebrated though he is, the gargantuan Bohemond is a study in loneliness and longing. The object of his desires, restaurant owner Hermione, is about to marry the cruel and philandering Paris. Bohemond is planning their wedding feast--a global-historical tour of the taste buds, designed to turn Hermione's heart. As the lovelorn chef pours sweat and tears into the cooking pot, Faulkner, the restaurant's bandleader bewitches the diners with tales of his heroic past: a heady casserole of myth and fairy tale, centred around the efforts of two ill-starred lovers--one black, one white--to escape prejudice and retribution in 1920s America. Bohemond becomes entranced by the tales, seeing them as allegories for his own, self-defeating obsession with Hermione. His friends and colleagues watch in concern as Bohemond's reality becomes populated by the demons and angels of his imagination. Perhaps one person--the enigmatic beauty Beatrice--can save him, but only if she can save herself. Readers who were stunned by Sutherland's debut novel Jelly Roll might be surprised to find him dealing with very different territory here. But to read this book and complain that its plot and its characters rarely touch base with reality would be like asking for tomato ketchup in a fine restaurant. Sweetmeat is a written feast, a magical and haunting tale of the heart, which establishes its author as a truly original voice in modern fiction.--Matthew BaylisRead More