Equal parts mystery and memoir, travelogue and history, The Telling Room is an astonishing work of literary nonfiction—Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil meets MFK Fisher—from master storyteller and New York Times bestselling author Michael Paterniti.
In 1991, while working at a gourmet deli, Paterniti encountered a rare Spanish queso reputed to be the finest and most expensive in the world. When he finds the cheese again years later, Paterniti becomes implicated in the mystery of a hilltop Spanish village where nothing is quite as it seems.
“Forget the summer, The Telling Room may turn out to be my favorite piece of non-fiction this year.”
—NPR.org
“Few writers can write about the taste of food with Paterniti’s vibrancy and precision . . . . He is a master of finding and telling great stories . . . that appear to be about something small, such as cheese, but are actually about something far larger—in this case, the whole of human existence.”
—Esquire
“Paterniti’s zestful storytelling carries us along on a delightful journey through a village rich with the traditions of food and family.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A beguiling, multifaceted narrative larded with delightful culinary, historical, political, psychological and literary layers.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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