Teresa Präauer – författare

'Brilliantly clever' Irish Times

'Thoroughly enjoyable' Aysegül Savas

An evening of perfect preparation. A night of uninvited chaos.

For the hostess, food has always been about growing up. From the pancakes your grandmother made you, dolloped with jam, to the salty glug of your first oyster. Now, poised at the brink of midlife, the hostess prepares for a dinner party in her new apartment. With a hunger for the finer things in life, she folds linen napkins into neat triangles, arranges wildflowers for the table and puts on a jazz playlist the projects effortless cool.

But her composure begins to falter when her guests arrive drunk and late, downing bottles of her perfectly cooled wine and trailing water over the floor. Here comes the chain-smoking professor who never says the right thing, the husband glued to his smartphone, the wife who makes a secret pass at your boyfriend.

As small talk and social preening give way to sexual tension and lost inhibitions, the hostess struggles to maintain control over an evening far beyond her wildest imaginings.

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'Very funny, very stylish and very moving' Adam Thirlwell

'Irresistible' New Statesman

'Clever, amusing' Daily Mail

'Astute, witty and as pleasure as a case of Crémant' Claire Powell

'Beautiful writing' Stylist

'Brilliantly clever' IRISH TIMES

'Moreish' GUARDIAN

An evening of perfect preparation. A night of uninvited chaos.

In her stylish apartment, the hostess is hard at work. She folds linen napkins, arranges wildflowers and cues up algorithmically chosen soft jazz to project an effortless cool.

Every detail is chosen with care, which makes it all the more galling when her guests arrive late and already drunk. As small talk becomes slurred confessions and lost inhibitions, the hostess struggles to maintain control over an evening far beyond her wildest imaginings.

'Amusing and delightfully compact' DAILY MAIL

'Thoroughly enjoyable' AYSEGÜL SAVAS

'I loved it' CLAIRE POWELL

'Get the crémant open' GQ