The Waiter

Description

Remains of the Day meets The Grand Budapest Hotel, the international sensation about a highly-strung waiter who loses control when an unexpected guest walks into his restaurant. Exquisitely observed and wickedly playful, The Waiter is a novel for lovers of food, wine, and of European sensibilities, but also for anyone who spends time in restaurants, on either side of the service. 'Delicious.' New York Times 'As if The Remains of the Day had been written by Kingsley Amis . . . brilliantly exquisite . . . This book is a meal you won't want to finish.' J. Ryan Stradal 'A sly amuse bouche of a novel . . . its atmosphere and observations are deliciously rich.' Mail on Sunday Welcome to The Hills, Oslo's most esteemed restaurant, an institution stewed in tradition and clinging to the faded grandeur of old Europe. A neurotic waiter tends to the desires of his clientele. Aristocrats and artistes, wealthy widows and roguish entrepreneurs, he observes all their dramas with a wit as sharp as a filleting knife. At table ten sits the impeccable Mr Graham, impatiently awaiting a special guest. When at last she arrives - young, beautiful, mysterious - she will prove to be a challenging new flavour, threatening both our waiter's nerves, and the delicately balanced ingredients of the room.

Acclaimed Norwegian artist Matias Faldbakken (b. 1973), unanimously hailed as one of the freshest new voices to emerge in Norwegian literature in the past decade, is the author of the critically acclaimed, award-winning Scandinavian Misanthropy trilogy. The Waiter is his latest novel, and the first to be published in English.

As if The Remains of the Day had been written by Kingsley Amis, The Waiter is a brilliantly exquisite view into an uproariously vigilant life of service and protocol. In Faldbakken's skilled hands, a mordant, lonely waiter in a declining restaurant becomes a raw, scrupulous force, powering one of the most purely entertaining novels I've read in years. This book is a meal you won't want to finish. * J. Ryan Stradal * Faldbakken has a way with non-action. He builds a delicious tension between the paucity of events and the lavishness of the technique with which they are described. * New York Times * A sly amuse bouche of a novel . . . its atmosphere and observations are deliciously rich. * Mail on Sunday * Bringing to mind Mervyn Peake and Wes Anderson, with some of Nathanael West's deadpan grotesque, this is a beguiling, quirky entertainment. * Kirkus * A quirky slice of life * Los Angeles Times *