The Telling Room: A Tale of Passion, Revenge and the World’s Finest Cheese by Michael Paterniti

For anyone who thinks their attention cannot be held by a book about cheese, think again: The Telling Room is a work of literary non-fiction that is simultaneously as thrilling as a fast paced novel and as edifying as a historical work. The book is the culmination of a decade long obsession for Michael Paterniti, who relocated his family to rural Spain in search of the ‘world’s finest cheese.'

At its core, the book tells the story of Ambrosio, a ruined cheese-maker from Guzmán who once made a cheese so exquisite that it was said to have the power to invoke long-forgotten memories. Ambrosio’s story is one of passion, betrayal and blood feuds, yet the book becomes about much more than the maker and his cheese. Paterniti questions the very nature of our modern lives. In a world where fast food and gastro-technology leave us with a product far removed from the original fruit, vegetable or animal, how can we maintain our connection to the land that begat it?

Ambrosio is the ultimate ambassador of slow food, creating a cheese with such care and attention that, for Paterniti at least, it conjures up a sense of the arresting Spanish countryside where it was created. [Rosie Hopegood]