The Devil's Larder

**A sumptuous, scintillating stew of sixty four short fictions about appetite, food, and the objects of our desire**

All great meals, it has been said, lead to discussions of either sex or death, and *The Devil's Larder*, in typical Cracean fashion, leads to both. Here are sixty four short fictions of at times Joycean beauty--about schoolgirls hunting for razor clams in the strand; or searching for soup-stones to take out the fishiness of fish but to preserve the flavor of the sea; or about a mother and daughter tasting food in one another's mouth to see if people really do taste things differently--and at other times, of Mephistophelean mischief: about the woman who seasoned her food with the remains of her cremated cat, and later, her husband, only to hear a voice singing from her stomach (you can't swallow grief, she was advised); or the restaurant known as "The Air & Light," the place to be in this small coastal town that serves as the backdrop for Crace's gastronomic flights of fancy, but where no food or beverage is actually served, though a 12 percent surcharge is imposed just for just sitting there and being seen.

Food for thought in the best sense of the term, *The Devil's Larder* is another delectable work of fiction by a 2001 winner of The National Book Critics Circle Award.