Description: The latest installment in Alexander McCall Smith's charming and hilarious Professor Dr Dr Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld series
Professor Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld is not just any German professor--he is the author of the highly-regarded work of scholarship, Portuguese Irregular Verbs. His eminence in language studies is widely respected, albeit rarely acknowledged by his colleague, Professor Detlev-Amadeus Unterholzer, the writer of a far less important book on the subjunctive. Their rivalry bubbles under the surface, but is quick to come into the open if something unusual disturbs the calm waters of the institute in Regensburg where they both work. One such event is the arrival of two visiting scholars from New Orleans. These ladies, Professor Pom Pom Boisseau and her friend, Professor Alice Martinique, are experts in the Provençal language and avid bikers. When they choose to make a dramatic entrance atop large, noisy motorbikes, Unterholzer is shocked, but von Igelfeld is rather taken with Pom Pom. In fact, he is very taken with her. Everyone can foresee this infatuation leading to disappointment, if not worse. But for von Igelfeld, disasters often arrive in twos and threes. Von Igelfeld may suffer humiliation after humiliation, but at the end of it all is the promise of a visit to Louisiana, where important research on communication among oysters is underway...Review Quotes: "A light-hearted campus caper of pedantry and petty jealousies, the novel is the latest in a long tradition that includes the late Kingsley Amis, Malcolm Bradbury and David Lodge."
--Sunday Post
"Of all the characters Alexander McCall Smith has dreamed up over the years, the German academic Professor Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld is my favourite...An irresistible figure of fun...It's impossible not to root for him."
--The Scotsman
--Scottish Field