“What makes Izzo’s work haunting is his extraordinary ability to convey the tastes and smells of Marseilles.”—The New Yorker

In a newly designed package, a reissue of one of the most heartbreaking and heartfelt books on the cultures of the Mediterranean ever written.

A short sublime book exploring the themes closest to Jean-Claude Izzo’s heart: his native Marseilles, the sea in all its splendor, and Mediterranean noir—the literary genre his books helped to found. This collection of writings shows Izzo, author of the acclaimed Marseilles trilogy, at his most contemplative and insightful as he reflects on his native city, with its food, its flavors, its passionate inhabitants, and its long, long history of commerce and conviviality. Here he allows these abiding preoccupations to take center stage.

Reminiscent of Henry Miller’s The Colossus of Maroussi and the lyrical essays of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and Albert Camus, as uplifting and touching as Daniel Klein’s Travels with Epicurus, this slim volume will appeal equally to gourmets who delight in the strong flavors of Mediterranean cuisine, to those enchanted by travel along the Riviera, and, naturally, to aficionados of noir fiction.

Jean-Claude Izzo
Jean-Claude Izzo was born in Marseilles, France, in 1945. Best known for the Marseilles trilogy (Total Chaos, Chourmo, Solea), Izzo is also the author of The Lost Sailors, A Sun for the Dying, Garlic, Mint, & Sweet Basil, and one collection of short stories, Living Tires. He died in 2000 at the age of fifty-five.

• Jul 31 2015
  Today’s Zaman: “This evocative and passionate collection of essays from the French crime writer is a paean to the life, cities and food of the Mediterranean.”
  
• May 26 2013
  Woody Haut's Blog: "These are all lyrical pieces that allow Izzo to speak from the heart about the state of his beloved city..."
  
• May 10 2013
  The Guardian: "This evocative new collection of essays...is a paean to the life, cities and food of the Mediterranean."
  
• Apr 12 2013
  The Paris Review: "[Izzo] distill[s] a part of the world into just a few pages."
  
• Apr 3 2013
  The Complete Review: "A fine little love-letter to Marseilles and the Mediterranean region around it."