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Maylis de Kerangal follows up her acclaimed novel The Heart with a dissection of the world of a young Parisian chefMore like a poetic biographical essay on a fictional person than a novel, The Cook is a coming-of-age journey centered on Mauro, a young self-taught cook. The story is told by an unnamed female narrator, Mauro's friend and disciple who we also suspect might be in love with him. Set not only in Paris but in Berlin, Thailand, Burma, and other far-flung places over the course of fifteen years, the book is hyperrealistic -- to the point of feeling, at times, like a documentary. It transcends this simplistic form, however, through the lyricism and intensely vivid evocative nature of Maylis de Kerangal's prose, which conjures moods, sensations, and flavors, as well as the exhausting rigor and sometimes violent abuses of kitchen work.



About the Author

Maylis de Kerangal

Maylis de Kerangal is the author of several novels in French: Je marche sous un ciel de traîne (2000) , La vie voyageuse (2003) , Corniche Kennedy (2008) , and Naissance d'un pont (translated here as Birth of a Bridge, winner of the Franz Hessel Prize and the Médicis Prize in 2010) . She has also published a collection of short stories, Ni fleurs ni couronnes (2006) , and a novella, Tangente vers l'est (winner of the 2012 Landerneau Prize) . In addition, she has published a fiction tribute to Kate Bush and Blondie titled Dans les rapides (2007) . In 2014, her fifth novel, Réparer les vivants, was published to wide acclaim, winning the Grand Prix RTL-Lire and the Student Choice Novel of the Year from France Culture and Télérama. She lives in Paris, France.



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