As I said in my blog about The Midwife of Venice, I found it very difficult to find novels actually set in Venice, so the other book I took was Recipe for Life by Nicky Pellegrino, set in southern Italy, but that wasn't really a hardship!
It's a beautiful story told in alternate chapters about Alice, who has suffered an unspeakable trauma in her life and wants to become a chef to prove she can do something, and Babetta, an old Italian lady, who looks after the garden belonging to the mother of Alice's friend, Leila.
Gradually, over time the two ladies meet and their lives are changed eventually for the better.
Nicky Pellegrino loves food and loves writing about food and its preparation, both in the restaurants that Alice works in in London and in the lovely Villa Rosa in Italy.
"Already there was the sweet smell of frying onions leaking from the door. . .'
It makes me want to get out my Le Creuset and start chopping! There's plenty of love life for Alice: her old boyfriend, Charlie; Tonino, her boss and Lucio, his brother who runs a pizzeria in the fictitious town of Triento, and it is intriguing to work out which one she will end up with.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I will look out for more by this author.
Have you read any Nicky Pellegrino novels?
Thanks for mentioning such a lovely sounding novel, Jean - haven't read any of Nicky's books before.
ReplyDeleteNo, I hadn't. It really made me want to pick fresh vegetables from my garden and cook them. Luckily we had some new potatoes and mint!
DeleteI too have never heard of Nicky Pellegrino. Love the photo at the top-makes me think of summer (which is nice as it appears we aren't going to have a summer this year...)
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a wonderful book, Jean! I am glad you enjoyed it. I haven't read this author before but her name does look familiar.
ReplyDeletenice post.
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