num_pages: 304
description: - See more at: http://faber.co.uk/catalog/cooking-wi...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. "A playful book, full of fun and games. There is so much pleasure to be had from Hamilton-Paterson's delight in language and wicked way with unreliable narrators. . . . The book's effect is achieved almost entirely through the comic magnetism of a single character."-The Times Literary Supplement "A skillful, highly original writer. . . . The elegant language, witty asides and vivid observations are memorable."-The Literary Review "I'm bowled over by the sheer imaginative brilliance of the man."-Barry Humphries "I love his elegant and intensely evocative style: strangeness lifts off his pages like a rare perfume."-J.G. Ballard "A work of comic genius."-The Independent "A wonderfully rich alloy of sub-Wildean witticisms and nonsense, Cooking with Fernet Branca had me laughing out loud and uproariously."-Ian Thomson, Sunday Telegraph Gerald Samper, an effete English snob, has his own private hilltop in Tuscany, where he wiles away his time working as a ghostwriter for celebrities and inventing wholly original culinary concoctions-including ice cream made with garlic and the bitter, herb-based liqueur of the book's title. Gerald's idyll is shattered by the arrival of Marta, on the run from a crime-riddled former soviet republic. A series of hilarious misunderstandings brings this odd couple into ever closer and more disastrous proximity. James Hamilton-Paterson's first novel, Gerontius, won the Whitbread Award. He is an acclaimed author of nonfiction books, including Seven-Tenths, Three Miles Down, and Playing with Water. He currently lives in Italy.
language: English
title: Cooking with Fernet Branca
titlecomplete: Cooking with Fernet Branca
genres: 21st Century, Travel, Comedy, Cooking, Food, Humor, Italy, Fiction, Contemporary, British Literature
ratings_count: 1710
places: Italy
series: Gerald Samper 
awards: awardedAt: 1072944000000
name: Booker Prize
category: Longlist, awardedAt: 1104566400000
name: Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize
category: Comic Fiction
publisher: Faber and Faber