COOKING WITH FERNET BRANCA

Book ID/图书代码： 04560004B07615

English Summary/英文概要： Cooking with Fernet Branca is a comic bad dream of modern Italy. Gerald Samper lives on a hilltop in Tuscany. An effete and snobbish Englishman working as a ghostwriter for celebrities, he would prefer to be remembered as a gourmet. His recipes include ’Mussels in Chocolate’, ’Garlic and Fernet Branca Ice Cream’ and a dish containing pureed prunes, rhubarb and smoked cat (off the bone).
Reluctantly, Gerald shares his hillside with Marta. As far as he can see, she is a vulgar woman from the crime-ridden former Soviet republic. She is also a composer in neo-folk style who is writing a score for a glamorous Italian film director - though Gerald can’t quite believe it.
The mutual misunderstandings of these two exiles, each in search of a crowning success in the sunlight of Tuscany, become ever more dangerous. To the music of black helicopters and bad opera, and oiled by large quantities of the bitter aperitif Fernet Branca - all that either of them seems to have around the house - the lives of these two unlikely neighbours gradually and disastrously intertwine ...

Chinese Summary/中文概要： Fernet Branca號稱苦酒之王，是一款義大利米蘭的苦味利口酒，又稱比特酒。它以北阿爾卑斯刪的30種藥草，浸泡在葡萄酒和白蘭地的混合液裡，一同在橡木桶內陳年而成，被世人公認為超級苦酒。《苦酒入菜》這本書裡，作者安排了兩個身懷絕技卻落魄、等於是自我流放到異鄉的創作者，窩居在義大利托斯卡尼的山丘上。這一對男女互相看不順眼，產生誤解、甚至鬥智的種種爆笑經過。男主角Gerald Samper是替名流抓刀寫傳記的影子作家，但自視甚高，把所有對於文學或創作的焦慮都用食物來代替，自認為是美食家的他，發明了一大堆怪異到不行的食譜，例如巧克力淡菜、大蒜苦酒冰淇淋之類的，還沾沾自喜。女主角Marta則是替義大利頗具魅力大導演作曲的前蘇聯人，儘管勢利眼的男主角私下覺得她的國家犯罪猖獗，水準低下，不相信她有音樂天份，並且覺得她粗魯俗氣不堪。(TT)

Awards/获奖情况：Hamilton-Paterson quickly seduces the reader with perfectly captured acerbic tone and timing. --- The New Yorker
Provokes a sort of indecorous involuntary laughter… Imagine a British John Waters crossed with David Sedaris. --- The New York Times Book Review
Usually writers taking a holiday from their serious work will use a pseudonym (DeLillo as Cleo Birdwell), but British novelist Hamilton-Paterson (Gerontius, etc.), who lives in Italy, bravely serves a very funny sendup of Italian-cooking-holiday-romance novels, without any camouflage. Written from the alternating perspectives of two foreigners who have bought neighboring Tuscan houses, the book has no plot to speak of beyond when-will-they-sleep-together. Gerald Samper is an effete British ghost writer of sportsperson biographies (such as skier Per Snoilsson’s Downhill All the Way!); neighbor Marta is a native Voynovian (think mountainous eastern bloc) trying to escape her rich family’s descent into postcommunist criminality—by writing a film score for a "famous" pornographer’s latest project. Each downs copious amounts of the title swill and carps at the reader about the other’s infuriating ways: Gerald sings to himself in a manner that Marta then parodies for the film; Gerald relentlessly dissects the Voyde cuisine Marta serves him, all the while sharing recipes for his own hilariously absurd cuisine. Rock stars, helicopters, the porn director and son, and Marta’s mafia brother all make appearances. The fun is in Hamilton-Paterson’s offhand observations and delicate touch in handling his two unreliable misfits as they find each other—and there’s lots of it.---Publishers Weekly

About the Author/作者介绍： James Hamilton-Paterson’s work has been translated into many languages. He is a highly acclaimed author of non-fiction books, including Seven-Tenths, Three Miles Down and Playing with Water, as well as America’s Boy, a study of Ferdinand Marcos and the Philippines. Gerontius, his first novel, won the Whitbread Award, while his most recent, Loving Monsters (2001), was praised by the Sunday Telegraph as ’tantalising, erudite and ingenious’. He lives in Italy.
James Hamilton-Paterson是備受讚譽的英國作家，他畢業於牛津名校，卻主張作家應該持續探索世界，除了到全球各處旅行，他最經常停留的地方，就是澳洲、托斯卡尼與菲律賓。James Hamilton-Paterson的作品有詩集、非小說與小說，長期受邀寫作科學專欄的他，對於海洋研究甚深，屢有相關佳作。卻被文壇視為自我放逐與歸隱的寫作者，難得曝光，低調保持一定的神秘色彩，受到高度推崇。Gerald Samper小說系列，諷喻自省意味濃厚，讀來卻相當輕鬆，猶如一幕幕黑色幽默劇，被評論家認為雅俗共賞，突破文類限制。

Format:TRADE PAPERBACK

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