A Good Year
A feel-good read to warm your heart
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4.7 • 20 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
*NOW A MAJOR FEEL-GOOD FILM STARRING RUSSELL CROWE*
When he left depressing, drizzly London for a sun-soaked vineyard in Southern France, he was expecting to find a savvy business investment. Instead, he found himself.
Meet Max Skinner. Max spends his days trading stocks in the City, his nights flirting with beautiful women in bars. He's successful, well-paid, good-looking for his age . . . but the reality is that he's lost. And in the grey maze of London's Square Mile, there's no clear escape route.
After a disappointment at work causes him to resign, he receives a letter telling him that his uncle Henry has passed away, leaving him an estate and vineyard in Provence.
Slowly, memories of the magical summers he spent on the vineyard as a boy start to return to him. And then there's the matter of beautiful, magnetic waitress Fanny Chenal. Not to mention the American backpacker who's just turned up on his doorstep, claiming that Uncle Henry was her father.
The ultimate feel-good read, A Good Year is a love letter to second chances, simple pleasures, and how the wonder we thought we'd lost in our childhood was with us all along. You might just have to go on a journey to find it again.
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'The only thing wrong I found with this story is that it ended' - Goodreads reviewer
'Irresistible' - BookPage
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Mayle's breezy, uncomplicated fifth novel (Chasing Cezanne, etc.) and ninth book follows 30-something Max Skinner from a sabotaged financial career in London to his adoption of the Proven al lifestyle on an inherited vineyard in France. Max spent holidays at his Uncle Henry's vineyard as a child, so when he inherits the place, the prospect of returning is tempting; a generous "bridging loan" from ex-brother-in-law Charlie seals the deal. The estate, Le Griffon, is in a dire state of disrepair and the wine cellar is filled with bottles of a dreadful-tasting swill, but it's nothing that vineyard caretaker Claude Roussel and prim housekeeper Madame Passepartout can't resolve. Max settles into his new life easily thanks to the attentions of local notary Nathalie Auzet and busty cafe owner Fanny. The arrival of young Californian "wine brat" Christie Roberts, Uncle Henry's long-lost daughter, complicates matters for Max, but her surprise offer and Charlie's arrival lessen the impact of a vicious vineyard scandal involving a delicious, high-priced, discreetly produced wine called Le Coin Perdu. Mayle's simple story provides lighthearted if unadventurous reading and a fond endorsement of the pleasures of viniculture.
