This one gets 4.5 stars. It was hilarious, so funny I'm going to read it again. Ending didn't quite work that's why it didn't get the 5th star.

Quite simply the funniest book I have read in years. Pure comfort reading.

Rating: 3.75* of five

n  $1.99 ON KINDLE!n

The Publisher Says: 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.

My Review: Cooking With Fernet Branca is part of oddball publisher Europa Editions's sinister plot to make Murrikins like me aware of the strange and sinister world of lit'rachoor published beyond our shores. Muriel Barbery owes her Murrikin presence to them, too. We all know how *that* turned out....

Well, before moving any farther along in this review process, let me send out the call: Does anyone know how to get hold of (wicked double entendre optional) actor John Barrowman? You know, Captain Jack Harkness of Torchwood fame? He is literally missing the key to Murrikin stardom by not reading, optioning, and making this book into a movie. It suits every single national prejudice we have: Eastern Europeans as sinister lawbreaking peasants who eat strangely shaped, colored, and named things and call them foods (like Twinkies, Cheetos, and Mountain Dew are *normal*); Englishmen as dudis (you'll have to read the book for that translation) who do eccentric off-the-wall things with food that are repulsively named and gruesomely concocted (spotted dick? bubble-and-squeak?); and Italians as supercilious effete cognoscenti of world culture, who possess the strangest *need* for vulgarity.

The characters in this hilarious romp are the most dysfunctional group of misfits and ignoramuses and stereotypes ever deployed by an English-language author. They do predictable things, yet Hamilton-Paterson's deftly ironic, cruelly flensing eye and word processor cause readerly glee instead of readerly ennui to ensue. The whole bizarre crew...the lumpenproletariat ex-Soviet composer, the Italian superdirector long past his prime, the English snob who refers to Tuscany's glory as "Chiantishire" and "Tuscminster"...gyrates and shudders and clumps towards a completely foreseeable climactic explosion (heeheehee). And all the time, snarking and judging and learning to depend on each other. In the end, the end is nigh for all the established relationships and the dim, Fernet Branca-hangover-hazed outlines of the new configurations are, well, the English say it best...dire.

Read it. Really, do. And I dare you not to laugh at these idiots! Don't be put off by the sheer hideousness of the American edition's cover, in all its shades-of-purple garish grisliness. The charm of reading the book is that one needn't look at that...that...illustration...on the cover, but inflict it on those not yet In The Know enough to be reading it themselves.

And seriously...John Barrowman needs to know about this. Pass it on!

Are you hungry for cat pot pie, parrots 'n' carrots, horse custard, or deep-fried mice?



The snobbish British writer and weird cook, Gerald Samper has moved into a villa in the Italian mountains. Here he finds he has a neighbor Marta, whose Russian based family are crime lords.



This odd couple produce an amazing series misunderstandings and dangerous situations.

One of Gerald's recipes...

"Sometimes I lie in bed and cheer myself up by gloating over the culinary challenges faced and overcome in the heroic cuisine of yesteryear. Maj.-Gen. Sir Aubrey Lutterworth Elements of Raj Cookery (1887) would surely be on every insomniac's bedside table were it not so rare. He is full of cunning ways with fruit bats, python etc. and his recipes breathe a manly simplicity.

'With a sharp dhauji remove the paws of a medium-sized panda. Discard the animal. Soak the claws overnight in a crock of fresh tikkhu juice. In the monsoon months it will be found expedient to mount a guard since the smell of tikkhu fermenting is irresistible to both upland tiger and bamboo wolf.' ...

Written, of course, at a time when the earth was ours and the bounty thereof. Nowadays we have pizza; and just look at the state of things."



I have not described the weirder recipes to protect readers with delicate stomachs.

Enjoy!

If you’ve ever had a love-hate relationship with your neighbor, if you ever thought that Frances Mayes’ vision of expatriate Italy was a little too precious, if you enjoy novels with unusual recipes, and you enjoy Odd Couple comedies then this is the book for you! Gerald Sampson, who buys a villa in Tuscany, is a snobby Brit who ghostwrites books for sports stars and fancies himself an experimental cook—and he does experiment—with cat, otter and like the title says, lots of the herbal spirit, fernet branca! He even whips up a concoction called Alien Pie—but you’ll just have to discover that for yourself! His neighbor Marta is from the fictitious ex-Soviet country of Voynovia where her father is a Mob boss and is in Italy to work on a film score. Gerald and Marta get on each other’s nerves from day one—but the real comedy is in the fact that you get the story from both of them, and they each have a different version to tell! This is an oddball comedy that is a real send-up of running off to Italy for the good life.

My Goodreads friend Meliss recommended “Cooking with Fernet Branca” and I’m glad she did! Author James Hamilton-Paterson is hilarious.

This book is the first in a series revolving around Gerald Samper, ghostwriter of sports celebrity autobiographies. He’s good at it, but only does that kind of writing because it pays well. He’s not happy with his work.

Gerald’s hobby is cooking: experimenting and creating recipes. He shares some of these with the reader, recipes such as “Rabbit in Cep Custard.” Yes, he creates recipes no one would want to eat and graciously shares the information.

Gerald needs peace and quiet to compose his autobiographies and so buys a house on a mountain in northern Tuscany. There is only one other residence nearby.
As Gerald considers whether to buy the house, the real estate agent assures the British ex-pat that his neighbor is only in residence one month out of the year and the author will have the needed quiet.
The neighbor arrives. Marta is from Eastern Europe and has bought the other house for the peace she needs to write musical scores for popular movies. That same real estate agent tells her she will have the requisite silence; her neighbor is only in his house one month out of the year.

While each demands quiet to do their work, neither is quiet while working. This leads to altercations on both sides. The story shifts back and forth with each taking a turn telling the story. Part of the humor comes from the contrast of how the two see themselves compared to how their near neighbor perceives them. Not only does neither value the other as they both feel they should be valued, neither believes the other is actually doing the work they claim.

Hamilton-Paterson writes with a sly wit as he presents the thoughts of each imposed upon neighbor.

This book had me laughing out loud at times. It is great literary escapism and I plan to move on to the next book in the series.

A zany farce populated by oddball characters, most of whom become more endearing as things unravel. Very well-crafted and just packed with rich, carefully considered language. I thoroughly enjoyed the circus and laughed out loud in several spots.

Hilarious. Simply hilarious.

A Englishman buys a house in the mountains of Italy seeking quiet for his writing. He sings arias while he invents the most bizarre recipes, the products of which he sometimes shares with his aggravating neighbor, a woman from Voynovia, who generously shares bottles of Fernet Branca with him. She claims to be a musician and composer in town to compose music for a film by a famous Italian director.

Their experiences of living as neighbors differ depending on who does the narration, which gives the reader the opportunity to see both sides. Humor aside, what's clear is our culture colors impressions we form of people from countries we are unfamiliar with and these impressions are often false once we get to know the other person better or start to share a language with which to better communicate.

What this book is full of is humor and crazy capers. It's pure entertainment.

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What a disappointment. To me this book was a victim of the author's need to be too witty. It wasn't fun, it wasn't entertaining, it wasn't credible on any level.

Gerald Samper, an English journalist, and Marta, an Eastern European composer, both searching for peace and quiet, find themselves reluctant neighbours in Tuscany. The narrative switches between them, and it becomes clear that they are each baffled and annoyed by the other one. Gerald writes biographies of sports personalities and enjoys cooking very strange dishes, among those he gives recipes for in the book are Otter in lobster sauce, Rabbit in cept Custard, and Garlic and Fernet Branca Ice Cream. Meanwhile Marta is composing the score for a film, and is disturbed by Gerald’s terrible singing. Gerald is disturbed by Marta’s music. Various other characters come and go and add to the confusion and misunderstanding between them. This is a very funny story, and the two contrasting narratives make it very enjoyable to read.

What a delight! A friend recommended this one or I would have missed it. I was told there were subtle echoes of Ignatius Reilly from “A Confederacy of Dunces” and there most definitely are - but the novel is wholly original. Through hilarious situations, characters, and revolting recipes - it’s quite a funny charmer. I really enjoyed it. I’ll definitely be finding the other two.