"What makes Izzo's work haunting is his extraordinary ability to convey the tastes and smells of Marseilles."--The New Yorker
In a newly designed package, a reissue of one of the most heartbreaking and heartfelt books on the cultures of the Mediterranean ever written.
A short sublime book exploring the themes closest to Jean-Claude Izzo's heart: his native Marseilles, the sea in all its splendor, and Mediterranean noir--the literary genre his books helped to found. This collection of writings shows Izzo, author of the acclaimed Marseilles trilogy, at his most contemplative and insightful as he reflects on his native city, with its food, its flavors, its passionate inhabitants, and its long, long history of commerce and conviviality. Here he allows these abiding preoccupations to take center stage.
Reminiscent of Henry Miller's The Colossus of Maroussi and the lyrical essays of Antoine de Saint-Exup ry and Albert Camus, as uplifting and touching as Daniel Klein's Travels with Epicurus, this slim volume will appeal equally to gourmets who delight in the strong flavors of Mediterranean cuisine, to those enchanted by travel along the Riviera, and, naturally, to aficionados of noir fiction.