The Novel Habits of Happiness

Zusatztext “Isabel Dalhousie’s satisfying return. . . . Edinburgh’s favorite philosopher/sleuth is back! this time helping a frantic mom whose son keeps talking about his previous life. Plot twists keep you reading (maybe the boy’s claims aren’t so crazy after all . . .)! but it’s Isabel’s musings on duty and parenthood that linger.” — People Magazine “A stimulating thinking-person’s read! seeming light on the surface but actually going deep. . . . This is a love story. Not the conventional kind! a boy-meets-girl romance; rather! it’s a novel about love—love of life! love of home and homeland! love of partner and family! love of fellow humans.” — New York Journal of Books   “Isabel Dalhousie philosophizes the way some people drink. There is nothing that she won’t contemplate! analyze or nitpick! from meerkats in the zoo to the difference between a good submarine (the crew doesn’t swear or drink) and a bad submarine which of course must be nuclear.” — The Washington Times   “No writer makes the philosophical life as inviting and cozy as McCall Smith does in his episodic novels featuring Isabel Dalhousie. . . . The real substance of this charming series lies in Isabel’s thoughtful observations dn the interactions among a large cast of characters.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) Praise for the Isabel Dalhousie series   “Isabel Dalhousie is a force to be reckoned with.” —USA Today   “The literary equivalent of herbal tea and a cozy fire . . . Invites readers into a world of kindness! gentility and creature comforts . . . McCall Smith’s Scotland is well worth future visits.” —The New York Times   “Isabel Dalhousie is such good company! it’s hard to believe she’s fictional. You finish [each] installment greedily looking forward to more.” —Newsweek   “A world where humor is gentle! suffering is acknowledged but not foregrounded and efforts to do good are usually rewarded. It’s a wonderful place to visit! even if we don’t get to live there.” —The Washington Post Informationen zum Autor ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH is the author of 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 lives in Scotland. CHAPTER ONE Give it back,” muttered Isabel Dalhousie.   “Won’t,” said Charlie.   “What?” asked Jamie.   It was one of those conversations in which two people are talking about different things—unknowingly—and a third tries to make sense of what is said. The setting of this exchange was Edinburgh, in a Victorian house surrounded by rhododendrons and a few leafy trees: an oak, several copper beeches, and a single specimen tree known variously as the dove tree or ghost tree. “Popular with doves,” said Isabel, adding, “and, I assume, with ghosts.”   If looked at from above, as from an intrusive, snap-happy satellite, the garden would be seen to be bounded on one side by a tree-lined avenue and on its three other sides by a high stone wall. This wall was a highway for cats and for Brother Fox, the fox who lived somewhere nearby and with whom Isabel from time to time communed—to the extent that foxes, in their reserve, will allow anybody to commune with them. The wall was also a parcelling-out, in neat rectangular shapes, of contested suburban territory—mine here, yours there, this shared. Beyond that wall were further gardens; then came roads and buildings of grey or honey-coloured stone, spreading out like skirts until they reached hills on one side and sea on the other. This was the North Sea, cold, blue, lapping at the...

Product details

• Authors: Alexander McCall Smith
• Publisher: External catalogues US
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 21.07.2015
• EAN: 9780307907356
• ISBN: 978-0-307-90735-6
• Dimensions: 146 mm x 219 mm x 26 mm
• Series: Isabel Dalhousie Series; Isabel Dalhousie; Isabel Dalhousie Series
• Subject: Fiction > Narrative literature