What book am I thinking of? It has recipes and adventures in wartime Europe, but no pirates I don't think...

June 29, 2006 5:40 PM

ID-That-Book-Filter: I read this novel in the mid-90s, and my recollection of it is very vague, but I'd love to find and read it again. I read it in the school library so it was probably written well before then; I'd guess maybe in the 80s. It was

set in Europe during World War II, or possibly I, but probably II. The protagonist gets up to all sorts of hair-raising adventures in wartime Europe, and the novel ends a little bit after the War itself does. There's a "junk dealer" involved: either the guy is or becomes a junk dealer at the end, or the junk dealer is a major part of the plot. I remember in part of the book the guy is hiding in some barn. Also, there are a lot of very fancy recipes in the novel. I think the novel ends with the protagonist in Belgium or Germany, something like that.

I've seen you guys work miracles with even vaguer descriptions than this, so I hope this works!

posted by evariste to media & arts (11 comments total)

Junkyard. The word I was looking for was junkyard.
posted by evariste at 6:00 PM on June 29, 2006

Seems like you're not the only person looking for this book - see this Google answers thread, which reveals that the answer is "It can't always be caviar/The Monte Cristo Cover-Up (alternate titles)" and provides some more information as well.
posted by teleskiving at 1:49 AM on June 30, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

I love you, teleskiving.
posted by evariste at 2:03 AM on June 30, 2006

I am so amazed. I had totally lost hope that anyone knew what I was talking about.
posted by evariste at 2:05 AM on June 30, 2006

Wow, it was published in 1965. I guess it was even older than I thought.
posted by evariste at 2:07 AM on June 30, 2006

Happy to be of help! Good luck finding a copy.
posted by teleskiving at 3:13 AM on June 30, 2006

Not so hard to find on ABEBOOKS.com.

I may buy one for myself.
posted by IndigoJones at 5:35 AM on June 30, 2006

IndigoJones-yeah, that's where I picked up my copy last night. $2 + $5 for the fastest shipping that particular seller offered.
posted by evariste at 10:43 AM on June 30, 2006

Excellent! I was going to email to make sure you picked up on this. The money I've passed to that website over the years....
posted by IndigoJones at 6:35 PM on June 30, 2006

IndigoJones-yeah, I know all about ABE cos I used to work in a used bookstore :-)
posted by evariste at 6:53 PM on June 30, 2006

Got the book, read it, it was the right one, it was just as perfect as I remembered it being. Thanks again!
posted by evariste at 4:31 PM on July 7, 2006