Book description
The story revolves around the comings and goings at No. 44 Scotland
Street, a fictitious building in a real street in Edinburgh. Immediately
recognisable are the Edinburgh chartered surveyor, stalwart of the
Conservative Association, who dreams of membership of Scotland's most
exclusive golf club. We have the pushy Stockbridge mother, and her
prodigiously talented five-year-old son, who is making good progress
with the saxophone and with his Italian. Then there is Domenica
Macdonald who is that type of Edinburgh lady who sees herself as a
citizen of a broader intellectual world. In McCall Smith's hands such
characters retain charm and novelty, simultaneously arousing both mirth
and empathy. 44 Scotland Street is vintage McCall Smith, tackling issues
of trust and honesty, snobbery and hypocrisy, love and loss, but all
with great lightness of touch. Clever, elegant and funny, this is a
novel that provides huge entertainment but which is underpinned by the
moral dilemmas of everyday life and the characters' struggles to resolve
them.
