cover image EATING CROW

EATING CROW

Jay Rayner, . . Simon & Schuster, $23 (292pp) ISBN 978-0-7432-5059-7

The life of a merciless restaurant critic takes a dramatic turn when he discovers the intoxicating pleasure of penitence in this savory spoof. Moved to offer his apologies to the bereaved wife of a chef who commits suicide after reading an unforgiving review, Marc Basset has an epiphany: "I felt wonderful." Inspired, he embarks on a hunt to find all the victims of his lifelong cruelty (there are plenty) and offer them the apologies they deserve. During one especially tearful and eloquent admission of guilt, Basset's talent is recognized, and he's immediately whisked away to become the chief apologist for the U.N.'s nascent Office of Apology. Basset's new role affords him luxurious perks as he apologizes for what feels like every distasteful event in history, most of which his family has some infamous connection with. Perhaps inevitably, his triumphs turn sour, and he fears he's become a monstrous cliché machine. Rayner, the restaurant critic for the London Observer , takes a wonderfully impossible, although nowadays not completely far-fetched, notion and follows it to its conclusion with irrepressible humor and sarcasm. Agent, Joy Harris. (Aug.)

Forecast: A blurb from Anthony Bourdain ("A very funny book about apologies—by someone who has a lot to apologize for") should catch the eye of foodies, as should Rayner's luscious descriptions of the meals his protagonist cooks.