Feast, the debut novel of South London writer Don Goodwin, shares its title with a well-known cookbook by Nigella Lawson. Both writers put the restorative powers of food centre stage, but the similarity ends there. Nigella Lawson inhabits the candle-lit comfort of the metropolitan middle classes who celebrate the sensory delights of inventive cuisine. Don Goodwin takes us on a journey through the brutish, dog-eat-dog world of rural Scotland in the late 19th century where vicious lords and ladies of the manor rule with an iron fist and food is the stuff of survival. We meet the Connor family who moved to Scotland to escape the ravages of the Irish famine and now struggle to scrape a hand-to-mouth living off the land. Michael Connor attends Burns Medical School in Port Glasgow courtesy of a generous tutor, when his father falls ill and seems to be on the brink of death. But a sudden and apparently miraculous recovery triggers the interest of the medical school. Meanwhile sinister forces seem to be responsible for a series of ghoulish murders triggering the interest of the local police force. This makes for a toxic mix as the novel moves to a gruesome finale.
Sharply written, this is a dark story of life in the raw where desperate people resort to desperate measures to survive. Don’t expect a light hearted tale. But if you have a taste for the macabre, Feast is for you.
Feast is available as a paperback and ebook from Amazon books.
