The Enigma Of Garlic is the sixteenth book in the popular 44 Scotland Street Series by Scottish author, Alexander McCall Smith. The reader is, once again, brought up to date on the lives of our favourite Edinburgh residents.

But Domenica thought: I really would like things to be forever. I would like to be able to sit at this table once a week, perhaps, with these friends. I would like to talk about the things we talk about, the small things, whatever happened in the world. I would like to wake up in the morning and not think that things were getting worse. I would like not to have to listen to the exchange of insults between politicians. I would like to hear of people co-operating with one another and helping others and bringing succour and comfort to the needy and... and I would like not to think that we were still in the seventeenth century, as divided amongst ourselves as they were at that time, pitted against each other, with one vision of the good battling another, and people despising others for their opinions.”Last, but not least, the latest book in the 44 Scotland Street series, The Enigma of Garlic, is now available! It’s the most anticipated event of the decade—Big Lou and Fat Bob’s wedding—and everyone is invited! But the relative peace and tranquillity of 44 Scotland Street is about to be disrupted. Domineering Irene is set to return for a two-month stay, Bruce Anderson’s new-found outlook on life is being put by the test as he prepares to leave his creature comforts for the monastic simplicity of Pluscarden Abbey, and young Bertie is being shipped off to a summer camp. Alexander McCall Smith’s delightfully witty, wise and sometimes surreal comedy spirals out in surprising ways in this new installment, but its heart remains where it has always been, at the center of life in Edinburgh’s New Town. Matthew, Elsbeth, the triplets, and Au-Pair James still sorting through their roles in life and maybe learning a bit about gratitude. It was the beauty of the country before them that had done it. Scotland was a place of attenuated light, of fragility, of a beauty that broke the heart.”

A collective sigh of relief must have been heard from many readers lips when she left Scotland Street. Matthew still yearns for Pat, who does not reciprocate his feelings. His father finds himself a girlfriend, but Matthew thinks she is after his father’s money. Matthew clearly does not like her, but perhaps dad’s new girlfriend can prove her honorable intentions. Olive and Pansy indulge in cancel culture but are unable to get Tofu to react as intended; Irene coins the term “toxic caninity” with reference to the gold-toothed Cyril; Sister Maria-Fiore reveals a past in the Vatican’s Intelligence Service and puts it to good use in discovering the truth about Fat Bob. The relative peace and tranquillity of 44 Scotland Street is about to be disrupted. Irene is to return for a two-month stay, consigning Bertie to a summer camp. Not satisfied with that, she somehow manages to come between the enigmatic nun, Sister Maria-Fiore dei Fiori di Montagna, and her friend, the hagiographer, Antonia Collie.

What To Read Next

A stage adaptation, entitled The World According to Bertie, was performed at the 2011 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. [5] Television series [ edit ] It is a street with its own share of peculiarities and failures. The old haute bourgeoisie finds itself enmeshed with students, poets and portraitists. As always, many topics are mulled over or discussed: expert knowledge vs pretentiousness; the Dunbar Number of close friends; social climbers; guilt over the amount of water needed to produce coffee. Domenica MacDonald cultivates a friendship with Tarquin, one of the downstairs student neighbours, and they have some stimulating conversations. This series is perfection in my opinion. I love everything about it. There little point in giving a plot synopsis because I’m not sure there is a plot, nothing in particular happens. The pacing is set by character development and conversations and the passage of time in these novels is arbitrary. It seems to occur at a different pace for some than others. Bertie for example has aged maybe one year in 14 books while others have married and now have toddlers. There is astute social observances and deep philosophical musings on a range of topics from the mundane to the deep. It’s quotidian in the best way.