Cooking With Fernet Branca

by JamesHamilton-Paterson (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2004

  $10.44

  Gerald Samper, an effete Englishman, lives on a hilltop in Tuscany. He is a ghostwriter for celebrities, and a foodie, whose weird tastes include 'Mussels in Chocolate and Garlic' and 'Fernet Branca Ice Cream'. His idyll is shattered by the arrival of Marta, a vulgar woman from a former Soviet republic now run by gangsters, notably male members of her family. She is a composer in a neo-folk style who claims to be writing a score for a trendy Italian film director. The neighbours' lives disastrously intertwine. The entourages of the rock star and the director come and go; mysterious black helicopters bring news of mayhem in Voynova, Marta's homeland; and along the way the English obsession with Tuscany is satirized mercilessly. World rights for Cooking with Fernet Branca are controlled by Faber. Rights for Germany have already been sold.

• Used

  Paperback
  2005

  $15.02

  LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2004 Cooking with Fernet Branca is a gleefully tasteless bad dream of modern Italy, told through the eyes of Gerald Samper - effete Englishman, culinary adventurer, and ghostwriter to the stars. 'Wickedly witty . . . Anyone who does not add this hilarious divertimento to their summer reading list should be put on a forced diet of Gerald's inimitable Alien Pie.' Michael Dibdin,Guardian 'A deliciously nasty farce set in [Hamilton-Paterson's] adopted Tuscany . . . Cooking with Fernet Branca had me laughing out loud and uproariously. All Tuscanites should read it, preferably over a plate of stewed otter chunks in lobster sauce.' Sunday Telegraph 'Larded with bitter satire and piquant wit, at the expense, often, of its readers and their dreams of Italy . . . I laughed out loud several times a chapter.' The Times