44 Scotland Street: A 44 Scotland Street Novel (1)

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Knopf Canada, May 21, 2010 - Fiction - 352 pages
Bestselling author Alexander McCall Smith brings all the warmth of his extraordinary No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency books and the Sunday Philosophy Club series to this witty novel chronicling the lives of the residents of 44 Scotland Street in Edinburgh. Originally serialized in The Scotsman, 44 Scotland Street is an international sensation.

When twenty-year-old Pat rents a room from handsome and cocky Bruce, she inherits some delightfully colourful neighbours: Domenica, an insightful and eccentric widow; Bertie, a five-year-old who’s mastered both saxophone and Italian; and Irene, his overbearing mother. Pat’s new job at a gallery seems easy enough. Her boss spends most of his time drinking coffee in a local café and discussing matters great and small, and Pat’s duties are light. That is until she realizes that one of their paintings may be an undiscovered work of a renowned Scottish artist and she discovers that one of their customers may be in on the secret. Add to this a fancy ball, love triangles and an encounter with a famous crime writer, and you have Alexander McCall Smith’s entertaining and humorous portrait of Edinburgh society.
 

Selected pages

Contents

Preface
2 A Room with a Smell
3 We See a Bit More of Bruce
4 Fathers and Sons
5 Attributions and Provenances
6 Bruce Takes a Look at a Place
7 A Full Survey
8 Hypocrisy Lies Golf Clubs
57 The Duke of PlazaToro
58 Catch 22
59 The Dashing White Sergeant
60 The Tombola
61 Bertie Begins Therapy
62 The Rucksack of Guilt
63 Irene Converses with Dr Hugo Fairbairn
64 Postanalysis Analysis

9 SP
10 The Road from Arbroath
11 The Origins of Love and Hate
12 Chanterelles Trouvées
13 You Must Remember This A Kiss Is Just a Kiss
14 The Smell of Cloves
15 560 SEC
16 Irrational Beliefs and the Mind of the Child
17 An Educational Exchange
18 The Works of Melanie Klein
19 A Modest Gift
20 The Boys Discuss Art
21 A Daughters Dance Card
22 Bruce Comes Under Consideration
23 Goingson in London
24 Unwelcome Thoughts
25 Dinner with Domenica
26 A Room a Photograph Love and Memory
27 The Electricity Factory
28 Thomas Is Electrocuted
29 Friendship
30 Things Happen at the Gallery
31 The Lothian and Borders Police Art Squad
The Essential Problem
33 Peploe?
34 On the Way to the Floatarium
35 Latte Interrupta
36 Bertie in Disgrace
37 At the Floatarium
38 MotherDaughter Issues
39 The Facts of Life
40 In Nets of Golden Wires
41 Your Cupboard or Mine?
42 Gallery Matters
43 The Sort of People You See in Edinburgh Wine Bars
44 Tales of Tulliallan
45 More Tulliallan Tales
46 Humiliation and Embarrassment
A Breakfast Conversazione
48 Plans for the Conservative Ball
49 Tombola Gifts
50 Bruce Prepares for the Ball
51 Velvety Shoes
52 Silk Organza
53 Bruce Fantasises
54 Supporting Walls
55 Discovered
56 At the Braid Hills Hotel
65 A Meeting in Valvona and Crolla
66 Mr Dalyells Question
67 Playing with Electricity
68 Boucle dOr
69 The Turning to Dust of Human Beauty
70 An Evening with Bruce
71 At the Scottish National Portrait Gallery
72 Angus Lordies Difficult Task
73 A Dissident Free Presbyterian Fatwa
74 A Mans Dressinggown
75 News of a Loss
76 Remembrance of Things Past
77 Into Deep Morningside
78 Steps with Soul
79 A Meeting on the Stair
80 Male Uncertainty Existential Doubts New Men etc
81 Morningside Ladies
82 On the Way to Mr Rankins
83 But of Course
84 An Invitation
85 In the Cumberland Bar
86 On the Subject of Dogs
87 The Onion Memory
88 Big Lou Receives a Phone Call
89 Big Lou Goes to Dinner
90 Poetry of the Tang Dynasty
91 God Looks Down on Belgium
92 In Scotland Street Tunnel
93 A Further Tunnel and a Brief Conversation About Aesthetics
94 An Interesting Discovery
95 Mr Guy Peploe Makes an Appearance
96 Mr Peploe Sees Something Interesting
97 More about Bertie
98 Irene and Dr Fairbairn Converse
99 Bruce Takes a Bath and Thinks
100 Bruce Expounds
An Exchange
102 Paternal Diagnosis
103 And Then
104 The Place We Are Going To
105 Berties Friend
106 Lunch at the Café St Honoré
107 Confidences
108 Action Is Taken
109 A Most Remarkable and Important Discovery
110 Gain Loss Friendship Love
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About the author (2010)

ALEXANDER MCCALL SMITH is the author of the international phenomenon The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, the Isabel Dalhousie Series, the Portuguese Irregular Verbs series, the 44 Scotland Street series and the Corduroy Mansions series. He is professor emeritus of medical law at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and has served with many national and international organizations concerned with bioethics. He was born in what is now known as Zimbabwe and was a law professor at the University of Botswana.

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