 | philshanklin Jan 8 | A 633 page entertaining historical novel taking us back to eighteenth century Madrid and the Castamar household headed by the widowed Duke. At the start of the novel we meet Clara who is about to take up work in the kitchen, having fallen on hard times. Clara has a fear of open spaces (a fact I seemed to forget regularly when reading this book) but within the intense atmosphere of a busy kitchen she thrives. That is, if she is allowed to, as the housekeeper Dona Ursula takes a dislike to her. For the first half of the book Clara feels like the main character but as the plot full of intrigue and manipulation develops others take precedence Central to all the skullduggery is an embittered Marquess who has befriended the Duke's mother in order to wreak havoc and bring about the ruin of the family. The Duke has an adopted brother, Gabriel, who is black and was brought into the family by the previous Duke appalled by slavery. He fits in with the Castamars but the rest of society is not as accommodating which provides an interesting slant. There's a number of other household staff and family friends who have their part to play as well as some low-lifes the Marquess uses to do his dirty work. Translated from the 2019 Spanish publication by Rahul Bery and Tim Gutteridge this is highly readable. I felt initially it was going to be bogged down by kitchen preparation and lists of food as the plot is given time to build and when it does it is all rather effective. It does take a while to work out who is who with the third-person narration seeing things from a number of different characters' perspectives. I did really enjoy it and its translation may be prompted by a 2019 twelve part adaptation which is now available on Netflix in the UK. The Cook Of Castamar is published by Head Of Zeus in the UK on 5th January 2024. Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy. | | | |  | You can also reply to this email to leave a comment. | | | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment