As such a small nation, Andorra doesn't have a very vibrant publishing industry. With their primary language being Catalan, they don't have many of their books translated into English. So, finding a book to whisk us away to Andorra proved a bit of a challenge!
With a slim list of available pickings, I decided to read Mr. S and the Secrets of Andorra's Box. I was not blown away, unfortunately!
First of all, the book had a couple of hurdles to overcome for me off the bat - it takes place mostly in Ireland; it is the eighth book in a series; and it has an extremely unlikable main character. Since I am putting the heroes of each of our reads into the role of 'travel companion,' I can say that our protagonist (antagonist?), Ross, was not likable and certainly is not someone I would want to travel with to Andorra. Additionally, Mr. Howard writes in a phonetic style that works to capture the Irish accent and lots of Irish slang. This wove between somewhat charming to frustrating for me.
I will give this book the benefit of the doubt and assume maybe I would have appreciated it more if I had started at the beginning of the series. Alas, however, I did not.
The book features Ross, who was once a professional Rugby player in Ireland, now having been hired to coach the barely functional Andorran Rugby national team. (We didn't arrive in Andorra until page 186, so we got a bit of background on Ross's life before he made the trip, including his wife leaving Ireland with her boyfriend and their toddler daughter; lots of wildly unbelievable stories about his extraordinarily precocious 10 year old son; and a surprise visit from the young woman his wife had sponsored from afar in Africa for many years.)
We did manage to get a bit of exposure to Andorra, and I did appreciate that.
First of all, there is lots of discussion throughout the book about skiing whenever Andorra is mentioned. Being so small, the country doesn't have its own airport, so Ross needs to fly into either France or Spain (he chose Barcelona) and hire a car to drive through the mountains to his destination. He spent his time in the capital city of Andorra la Vella, which is the nation's capital. While in Andorra, Ross ran into his wealthy father who, he learns, has been using Andorra as a tax haven for years.
Ross did enjoy a couple of meals in Andorra along with us. Xai is Roast Lamb, and Escudella (which I used as my inspiration for the Andorran meal my family enjoyed this week!), he describes as "chicken, sausages and meatballs... might even be a pinch of cinnamon in there." He also ordered an 'Americano' coffee, which he is quickly told is looked down upon throughout Europe!
While I would not necessarily recommend the book itself, one quote from it that really drew me in was, "The road to La Massana... all these wonderful tunnels through the mountains, then the most extraordinary valley opens up, right in front of your eyes." It is imagery like that which has my imagination dreaming, and has me looking forward to visiting Andorra in person some day!
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