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Alexander McCall Smith’s Isabel Dalhousie series continues with The Forgotten Affairs of Youth, onsale TODAY (Pantheon Books/December 6, 2011/$24.95). In this latest installment, #8, Isabel helps a friend discover the identity of her father. Should the affairs of youth be left in the past, or can the memories help us understand the present? In her special way, Isabel leads us to a new understanding of the meaning of family.
Praise for The Forgotten Affairs of Youth
“This totally absorbing novel has as its primary focus the grip of the past, as Isabel helps a woman given up for adoption find her biological father. Isabel is everything you’d want in a philosopher, but she is also quirky and witty and made more human by the longing she still sometimes feels for a beautiful but bad love in her past. Far from being Utopian, The Forgotten Affairs of Youth is filled with both spires and spikes, like Edinburgh itself.” —Booklist (starred review)
“You needn’t be a series-long admirer of Isabel Dalhousie to be beguiled by this curious philosopher and casual sleuth . . . Isabel believes only the examined life is worth living, and fearlessly so . . . It makes [her] a heroine worth following, even through this quiet, more reflective foray.” —Publishers Weekly
About the author:
Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the beloved bestselling 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 also the author of numerous children’s books. He is professor emeritus of medical law at the University of Edinburgh and has served on many national and international organizations concerned with bioethics. He was born in what is now known as Zimbabwe and taught law at the University of Botswana. He lives in Scotland. Visit his website at www.alexandermccallsmith.com.
As always, Alexander McCall Smith is a delightful read. I love Isabel Dalhousie.
HOWEVER, Pantheon’s quality control leaves much to be desired… pages 233 through 261 (and “About the Author”) were inserted upside down in the library copy I read!
Doesn’t anyone check these things before they go out?
Wow! I’m sorry to hear that. Unfortunately, printing errors occur—and that’s definitely a machine error you’re describing, not a human editor error—and what would be most helpful for all is for you to alert your library, so they can reach out to us for a replacement copy. Thank you!