The wedding officer -

Anthony Capella

Bantam Books

2006

532 páginas

17h 44m

ISBN-13: 9780553591453

In the luscious tradition of Chocolat and Corelli's Mandolin, acclaimed novelist Anthony Capella brings us a tale of war-torn Europe—and the sumptuous cuisine that sparked renewed hope, as well as an unexpected romance, for a young Italian widow and a British Army captain.

Livia Pertini is renowned for her cooking at a local osteria and has just settled into married life when the atrocities of World War II destroy the only sense of home she has ever known. Receiving the harrowing news that her husband has been killed in action, the beautiful culinary master wonders how she will survive.

Captain James Gould arrives in Naples amid rubble and starvation, determined to stamp out the flourishing black market and restore order to a land whose language he speaks fluently but whose culture he naively misunderstands. In a time and place marked by deprivation, he hires Livia as a cook—and soon discovers the succulence of her magnificent dishes, with ingredients procured as if by magic. He soon hungers not only for her feasts but also for her love. But one of his duties is to serve as the “wedding officer,” the man assigned to deny permission for marriage to British soldiers and their sultry Italian girlfriends. His seduction by Livia goes against everything he believes in, yet he is about to learn that passion is also the most thrilling hunger to feed.