An evocative portrait of the underbelly of contemporary Paris as seen through the eyes of a young waiter scraping out a living in the City of Light.

A waiter's job is to deceive you. They want you to believe in a luxurious calm because on the other side of that door . . . is hell.

Edward Chisholm's spellbinding memoir of his time as a Parisian waiter takes you beneath the surface of one of the most iconic cities in the world—and right into its glorious underbelly.

He inhabits a world of inhuman hours, snatched sleep and dive bars; scraping by on coffee, bread and cigarettes, often under sadistic managers, with a wage so low you're fighting your colleagues for tips. Your colleagues—including thieves, narcissists, ex-soldiers, immigrants, wannabe actors, and drug dealers—are the closest thing to family that you've got.

It's physically demanding, frequently humiliating and incredibly competitive. But it doesn't matter because you're in Paris, the center of the universe, and there's nowhere else you'd rather be in the world.

透过一个年轻服务员的眼睛，展现了一幅当代巴黎底层生活的画卷，这位年轻人在这座光明之城中勉强维持生计。

服务员的工作就是欺骗你。他们想让你相信奢华的平静，因为在那扇门的另一边……是地狱。

爱德华·奇肖姆（Edward Chisholm）的这本迷人的回忆录讲述了他作为巴黎服务员的经历，带你揭开巴黎的表面，直接进入其辉煌的底层。

他居住的世界里充斥着不人道的时间、稀少的睡眠和廉价的酒吧，靠咖啡、面包和香烟勉强度日，经常在虐待狂的经理手下工作，工资低到你要和你的同事争夺小费。你的同事也许是小偷、自恋者、退役士兵、移民、想当演员的人和毒贩，他们仿佛是你朝夕相处的“家人”。

这份工作对体力要求很高，经常是羞辱性的，而且竞争非常激烈。但这都不重要，因为你在巴黎，宇宙的中心，在这个世界上你最喜欢的地方。