IN THE KITCHEN

'Who ends up in the kitchen, Gabe?' 'Misfits', he said, 'psychos, exiles,culinary artists, and people who just need a job'. "In The Kitchen" isMonica Ali's stunning follow up to Brick Lane. It opens with a mysteriousdeath in the cellars of a smart, cosmopolitan hotel and over the course ofthe ensuing pages, peels back the layers of polyglot London to reveal themelting pot which exists below. Once again it confirms Monica Ali not onlyas a great modern storyteller but also an acute observer of the vagaries ofa contemporary culture.