The Wedding Officer

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Description

Livia Pertini is 79 and struggling to interest her granddaughter Rosa in the age-old recipes of her home, Fiscino, a tiny hamlet on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius. These recipes reveal the unimaginable hardships of the Second World War - mouse stew, dandelion frittatas - but also tell the story of a young, vivacious Livia. Naive and already war-weary, James Gouding takes up a British Field Security Service position in Naples, 1943. What he doesn't anticipate is that this involves a limited menu of fried Spam fritters and interrogating the would-be Italian fiancees of members of the armed forces. James's chance at true heroism arrives when a German tank is sighted and he is caught in its path. However, it is the imperious and dogmatic Livia who opens the hatch and yells at him to stop being such an idiot. Livia gladly becomes cook, translator and general factotum to James. The two begin to fall in love, knowing that Livia's husband away at war and James's girl back home will mean they can never acknowledge their passion. But the eruption of Vesuvius triggers a chain of explosive events that will force the two to flee behind enemy lines and will alter their lives immeasurably.

Reviews

Full of the same colour and verve as Capella's THE FOOD OF LOVE, this story also blends romance with gourmet delights GOOD HOUSEKEEPING THE WEDDING OFFICER resembles a cross between CAPTAIN CORELLI'S MANDOLIN and CHOCOLAT, while remaining a charming and powerful fiction in its own right Michael Arditti This is an engaging tale. It brims with fascinating historical detail, an infectious enthusiasm for southern Italy and its cuisine and is an undemanding and sympathetic love story SUNDAY TIMES Spicy, funny, delicious and sexy, this is the perfect holiday book EVENING HERALD

Author Bio

Anthony Capella spends part of each year travelling in Italy. He is based in London and this is his second novel.