Prize-winning author Anna Gavalda has galvanized the literary world with an exquisite genius for storytelling. Here, in her epic new novel of intimate lives-and filled with the "humanity and wit" (Marie Claire) that has made it a bestselling sensation in France-Gavalda explores the twists of fate that connect four people in Paris. Comprised of a starving artist, her shy, aristocratic neighbor, his obnoxious but talented roommate, and a neglected grandmother, this curious, damaged quartet may be hopeless apart, but together, they may just be able to face the world.
Hunting and Gathering
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||
Browse the best books of summer including blockbusters, beach reads, and editors' picks in our Summer Reading Store. |
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Love cures all that ails the troubled trio of "no-hopers" in this sentimental second novel by French literary sensation Gavalda (Someone I Loved; I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere). Camille, a talented artist exhausted by ennui and anorexia, cleans offices at night and cowers in a shabby garret by day. Philibert, the fastidious scion of a titled family, peddles museum postcards while squatting in his dead grandmother's Parisian manse, waiting for her estate to be settled. Philibert's roommate, Franck, a talented (and womanizing) chef with ambition to burn, motorcycles once a week to look in on his stubborn, ailing grandmother Paulette, an "inmate" at a retirement home. When Philibert finds Camille deathly ill one day, he rescues her from her icy garret and deposits her in his shabby but spacious home. Franck and Camille take an immediate dislike to each other, a sure sign that they're bound to fall in love—which happens, cutely, after they liberate Paulette. That's when, "for the first time, each and every one of them felt like they belonged to a real family." Gavalda's comically implausible and comfortably predictable novel of misfits is a Gallic charmer anchored by breezy and poignant storytelling. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
This international best-seller from one of France's rising literary stars is sure to be a popular book-club choice. Although Gavalda (Someone I Loved, 2005) amps up the pathos, she delivers a winning portrait of a group of misfits who band together to form their own family. There's socially awkward aristocrat Philibert, who is living in his dead grandmother's grand if sparely furnished Parisian apartment until her will has been sorted out; his handy but uncouth roommate, Franck, a talented cook who is heartsick over having to commit his grandmother to a nursing home; and gifted artist Camille, who works cleaning offices and suffers from anorexia. When Philibert finds Camille in her freezing attic apartment exhausted from a fever, he nurses her back to health. The chef and the artist take an immediate dislike to each other and then promptly fall in love, and the three then "embark on what might turn out to be the most beautiful days of their lives." Gavalda casts her immensely appealing story in such a sunny albeit sentimental light, readers will find it nearly impossible to resist. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
30 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Hunting and Gathering is a novel where people are the story. There is no bombastic action or elaborate plotting. It is simply the tale of a group of people all suffering from our common affliction: human frailty. Significant past events are relayed by the characters in their own unadorned words and the novel is all the better for it. It has all of the beauty, all of the tentative nature and all of the base human fear and stupidity that characterize life.
My favorite character was Philibert. An unpretentious intellectual with an enormous inferiority complex, he is also the simplest and kindest of the main characters. I loved his sincere and deep-rooted sweetness and tenderness. I think Gavalda also uses him to make something of a point; that strange person that so many of us do our best to avoid may be one of the best human beings we could ever hope to meet.
Camille is nicely drawn as a woman most afraid of her own wants and needs. She can be highly irrational and irritating but she's always sympathetic because she acknowledges her own flaws and doesn't try to justify them. I loved the vivid descriptions of her drawings. Gavalda phrased them so beautifully that I could see the drawings and paintings in my mind's eye.
The character I found most surprising was Franck. He was initially so unlikable and. once again, Gavalda doesn't try to pretty up or excuse his behavior. There are reasons for it but not justifications and Franck grows a lot over the course of the novel. He's something of a foil for the other two due to his noisy and dramatic initial decline--a great contrast to the gentleness and passivity of Camille's and Philibert's.... Read more ›
My favorite character was Philibert. An unpretentious intellectual with an enormous inferiority complex, he is also the simplest and kindest of the main characters. I loved his sincere and deep-rooted sweetness and tenderness. I think Gavalda also uses him to make something of a point; that strange person that so many of us do our best to avoid may be one of the best human beings we could ever hope to meet.
Camille is nicely drawn as a woman most afraid of her own wants and needs. She can be highly irrational and irritating but she's always sympathetic because she acknowledges her own flaws and doesn't try to justify them. I loved the vivid descriptions of her drawings. Gavalda phrased them so beautifully that I could see the drawings and paintings in my mind's eye.
The character I found most surprising was Franck. He was initially so unlikable and. once again, Gavalda doesn't try to pretty up or excuse his behavior. There are reasons for it but not justifications and Franck grows a lot over the course of the novel. He's something of a foil for the other two due to his noisy and dramatic initial decline--a great contrast to the gentleness and passivity of Camille's and Philibert's.... Read more ›
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By K. Caldwell
Format:Paperback
I don't know how else I can describe this book except to say that I disliked absolutely nothing about it. Except that it had to end.
These last few weeks have been enjoyable, and thought provoking, getting to know these strangers as they met and came together, all of them sad and yet hopeful in their own ways.
The Parisian setting had its own appeal, but that was not the story. The story was these characters, their journeys and growth. The story came alive through these characters and their ability to continue existing and enduring.
I felt happy and hopeful upon finishing their story. I'm only sad that it had to end.
Even before I started reading, I had the feeling that I would really love Hunting and Gathering. And I was right. I believe it very quickly joined the list of my all-time favorite books, one that I will gladly read again in the future.
Anna Gavalda has a great talent that truly took me by surprise, and I look forward to reading her other novel and short stories. Hunting and Gathering was a journey well taken and one I will encouragingly recommend to others.
These last few weeks have been enjoyable, and thought provoking, getting to know these strangers as they met and came together, all of them sad and yet hopeful in their own ways.
The Parisian setting had its own appeal, but that was not the story. The story was these characters, their journeys and growth. The story came alive through these characters and their ability to continue existing and enduring.
I felt happy and hopeful upon finishing their story. I'm only sad that it had to end.
Even before I started reading, I had the feeling that I would really love Hunting and Gathering. And I was right. I believe it very quickly joined the list of my all-time favorite books, one that I will gladly read again in the future.
Anna Gavalda has a great talent that truly took me by surprise, and I look forward to reading her other novel and short stories. Hunting and Gathering was a journey well taken and one I will encouragingly recommend to others.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By Ying Lu
Format:Paperback
Fun, captivating story about three otherwise isolated Parisians tied together sharing an apartment, who are eventually joined by one of the character's aging grandmother. Poignant insights into the basic social breakdown, and heart-warming praise forthe triumph human compassion and kindness.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I find myself coming back to this book every couple of months. I cant't seem to let go of the story, the characters are so alive and palpable, yet completely out of the ordinary. They bring out their personalities in the most trivial situations and just jump off the page. you want to know them, you want to know what's behind the pain that brought them together inside that weird, fancy apartment.
I'm into stories that narrate how people heal together. This book takes its own pace to show the evolution in their feelings toward each other; I love Philou's growth of confidence and Franck's growing warmth towards Camille. it's real, visceral, absolutely adorable but not excatly cheesy. it's as simple as the man he thinks he is, but as big as his own heart.
Paulette's character is fully known towards the middle section. I wish Gavalda would have written a little more about her. The dialogues between her an Camille are beautiful; actually all the dialogues in this book are excellent, I think it's it's strongest point. Even as a transtation, I don't think it misses out on anything.
Now here comes the downfall; I didn't give it 5 stars because of the ending. Perhaps most of the people rating here loved it, but I felt it was too rushed, too patched up and not entirely plausible. Of course that HAD to be the ending, otherwise millions of readers would turn this book to shreds. I just think these characters deserved an outcome that wasn't a reminiscence of your typical american chick-flick. It seemed unreal (not the way it ended per se, but HOW it was plotted by the author), especcially the epilogue. it bothered me a little. but that's just me. If you like these sorts of endings, ignore the missing star.
Just read this book. It will make you cry, laugh, and hope.... Read more ›
I'm into stories that narrate how people heal together. This book takes its own pace to show the evolution in their feelings toward each other; I love Philou's growth of confidence and Franck's growing warmth towards Camille. it's real, visceral, absolutely adorable but not excatly cheesy. it's as simple as the man he thinks he is, but as big as his own heart.
Paulette's character is fully known towards the middle section. I wish Gavalda would have written a little more about her. The dialogues between her an Camille are beautiful; actually all the dialogues in this book are excellent, I think it's it's strongest point. Even as a transtation, I don't think it misses out on anything.
Now here comes the downfall; I didn't give it 5 stars because of the ending. Perhaps most of the people rating here loved it, but I felt it was too rushed, too patched up and not entirely plausible. Of course that HAD to be the ending, otherwise millions of readers would turn this book to shreds. I just think these characters deserved an outcome that wasn't a reminiscence of your typical american chick-flick. It seemed unreal (not the way it ended per se, but HOW it was plotted by the author), especcially the epilogue. it bothered me a little. but that's just me. If you like these sorts of endings, ignore the missing star.
Just read this book. It will make you cry, laugh, and hope.... Read more ›
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I read "Hunting and Gathering" in the original, French version ("Ensemble, c'est tout"), so I'm not sure how well it translates. However, I loved this book. It's a page-turner. So well written that you really care about these charming and quirly characters and just want to know what will happen to them. This book is extremely joyful and uplifting, an ode to solidarity and human relationships. My only disappointment is that the ending seems rushed (as if the author hurried to hand in her manuscript in time), although it's satisfying.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good !
I wanted to read in english, I'd read Hunting and Gathering in French ( Ensemble c'est tout ) so i decided to reread the same book but in english.
I'm really happy of it !
I'm really happy of it !
Published 3 months ago by manon
3.0 out of 5 stars
Le sucre, c'est tout
As Oscar Wilde has once said: "All bad poetry is sincere". Prose may be slightly more forgiving - and a sincere book, like "Hunting and Gathering", could very well be enjoyable for... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Alexander Tsukerman
2.0 out of 5 stars
Would not suggest this book
Did not like the book! Too long and too boring and too strange. It was a waste of my time!
Published 5 months ago by Connie Miller
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great story
This is a great story of the lives of a group of people. Very well written - it pulls you into the lives of everyone and let you walk the road with them. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Penguin
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hunting & Gathering
I ordered this book for a Christmas gift exchange because I enjoyed this book so much. It's funny because once it was opened almost everyone wanted to see it. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Miriam J Pippel
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book
I had to read this book for a college course I was taking. I ended up really enjoying it. It is unpredictable, but very interesting.
Published on November 8, 2010 by Tara D. Roe
2.0 out of 5 stars
Dialogue for a first grader
Trivial dialogue, predictable outcome. Maybe if I read it in French..... Liked the weight of the pages, that's about it. Reminded me of reading a comic book.
Published on June 8, 2010 by map touts
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book
I really liked everything about this book down to the pages it was written on. They are really nice pages! Read more
Published on April 9, 2010 by Desiree Liu
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good read and equally good translation.
This was a good book that I would love to see as a movie. The descriptions are delicious and the sort of "stream of consciousness" style a la Joyce kept the pace up and compelled... Read more
Published on February 6, 2010 by K. Ingersoll
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unforgettable
This book will stay with me a long time. I wish I could read it in French, but assume that the translation was done well, as it is a joy to read. Read more
Published on September 26, 2009 by S. Gorman
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
So You'd Like to...
|
|
