The Debt to Pleasure, John Lanchester

Winner of the Whitbread Award for Best First Novel and a New York Times Notable Book, "The Debt to Pleasure "is a wickedly funny ode to food. Traveling from Portsmouth to the south of France, Tarquin Winot, the book' s snobbish narrator, instructs us in his philosophy on everything from the erotics of dislike to the psychology of the menu. Under the guise of completing a cookbook, Winot is in fact on a much more sinister mission that only gradually comes to light.