A Scottish boy needs all the moral support he can get

The Bertie Project: 44 Scotland Street Series By Alexander McCall Smith (Anchor)

A wee lad named Bertie has a miserable shrew of a mother, a pathetic philanderer of a father and a colicky infant of a brother. Can this tiny family be saved?

Of course they can — if only because they’re characters in “The Bertie Project,” the latest volume of the 44 Scotland Street series, by the indefatigable Alexander McCall Smith, author of the even more famous No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series.

This time around, Bertie’s mother, Irene, is determined to protect him from the unwholesome influences of modern life. She railroads Bertie into Italian conversation lessons, wooden puzzles and grain-rich snacks. His father disagrees with all this, and so does his grandmother Nicola, who often spirits Bertie away for treats such as hot chocolate at Valvona & Crolla and museum visits during which he can choose what to see for himself.

In a way, that’s a good metaphor for reading “The Bertie Project.” Readers can choose what to see for themselves. At one level, you can follow the plot, with its twists, turns and towel-wringing (mostly from Big Lou behind the counter at her coffee shop, as she looks for love). At another level, you can learn a lot about Scottish history and the nation’s onagain, off-again struggle for independence from Britain. A digression about the history of defenestration in Scotland shows that even writers as prolific as McCall Smith are not immune to the pleasures of falling down a rabbit hole while doing research.

But what’s most rewarding about “The Bertie Project” is the author’s deep knowledge of and commitment to ethical behavior. (McCall Smith is an emeritus professor of medical law at the University of Edinburgh and an expert on bioethics.) As his characters walk, talk, cook, study and meet, they consider all sorts of philosophical conundrums, from how best to raise a child to what constitutes hipster clothing. Some dilemmas are solved, others get more complicated — just like life. By the last chapter’s dinner party (dinner parties, it seems, are the very stuff of life in upper-middle-class Edinburgh), the characters and their author are ready to sit back, relax and partake of life’s bounty.

That’s reason enough to read this warm, busy and thoughtful book.