COOKING WITH FERNET BRANCA

By: James Hamilton-Paterson

This title is longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2004. "Cooking with Fernet Branca" is a gleefully tasteless bad dream of modern Italy, told through the eyes of Gerald Samper - effete Englishman, culinary adventurer, and ghostwriter to the stars. "Wickedly witty...Anyone who does not add this hilarious divertimento to their summer reading list should be put on a forced diet of Gerald's inimitable Alien Pie".

(Michael Dibdin, "Guardian"). "A deliciously nasty farce set in [Hamilton-Paterson's] adopted Tuscany..."Cooking with Fernet Branca" had me laughing out loud and uproariously. All Tuscanites should read it, preferably over a plate of stewed otter chunks in lobster sauce".

("Sunday Telegraph"). "Larded with bitter satire and piquant wit, at the expense, often, of its readers and their dreams of Italy...I laughed out loud several times a chapter". ("The Times").