This is an auction for THE DEVIL'S LARDER by Jim Crace.

"Whenever Crace's imagination alights on a topic, the reader is rewarded with a gem of a book, and this time the topic, broadly speaking, is food. Crace explores the complexities of human nature, as well as its foibles, in 64 short fiction pieces that cover the full gastronomic range, from soup to nuts. The stories are set in a fictional coastal town and the surrounding countryside, wherein we find legends, myths, miracles, eccentricities, class warfare, fast-talking spongers, remembrances of delicious home-cooked meals, and death and illness from food poisoning. That the pieces never flag is a tribute to Crace's ability to overlay the voices of a multitude of narrators with a fine patina of wryness."

• Booklist (US)

Amazon.com review:

“In The Devil's Larder, Jim Crace has put together an odd and artful volume that encompasses more of the human experience than it really ought to, given its size and scope. Crace presents us with 64 short fictions about food, which add up to a picture of life that is at once diabolical and innocent, creepily sexualized and free of judgment. In one fable, a mother and her small daughter twist their tongues together, ferreting out the food in each other's mouths: they want to know if food tastes the same from another person's tongue. A game of strip fondue ends with guests covered in burns where the molten cheese has fallen onto their naked flesh. "A gasp of pain. The whiff of sizzling flesh and hair and cheese." Flesh and cheese, that's the stuff. Crace shows us the odd outer limits of desire, and revels in the sheer weirdness of the daily act of eating.”

More very favourable reviews on Amazon.com.

Hardback 2001.

194 pages.

Near new condition.

The cost of shipping is $6.95.

There is of course no charge for shipping if you collect this book from my shop in Palmerston North following the auction.

Payment within seven days, please.