Ms. Mebel Goes Back to the Chopping Block

Sutanto (Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers) delights with this tale of second chances. Mebel Tanadi, a “Chinese-Indonesian princess” whose “second and arguably most universal language is cash,” has spent the past 40 years as a happy trophy wife to Henk in Indonesia. When he suddenly runs off with the family’s 24-year-old private chef, she decides to attend culinary school at the Saint Honoré School of Culinary Arts in France in order to win him back, and heads to Paris loaded down with Birkins and designer shoes. After she arrives, she learns that she mistakenly enrolled at another branch of the school near Oxford, England. When she gets to Oxford and immediately has her handbags stolen, she considers turning around and going home, but decides to strap on her Louboutins, put on her Hermes suit, and see what comes next. Along the way, Mebel discovers a deeper sense of self, meets an apparently perfect man, and becomes a mentor for younger students, all the while wondering what she’ll do if Henk really does come back. Sutanto keeps the pages turning with tight plotting and thoroughly enjoyable characters. Readers are in for a treat. (Apr.)