Product Description

"La Cucina" tells the story of Rosa Fiore, a solitary middle-aged librarian, who has resigned herself to a loveless life, and expresses her passionate nature through her delicious cooking.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #99207 in Books
• Published on: 2001-07-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 266 pages

From the Publisher
A shy librarian's passion for cooking leads to an unexpected love affair.

From the Back Cover
A delicious début novel set in Sicily about a shy librarian with a broken heart whose passion for cooking leads to an expected love affair.

La Cucina combines the sensuous pleasures of love and food, simmering in the heat of a Sicilian kitchen. Rosa Fiore is a solitary woman who has resigned herself to a loveless life, and expresses her passionate nature through her delicious cooking. Then, one day, she meets an enigmatic chef, known only as l'Inglese, whose research on the heritage of Sicilian cuisine leads him into Rosa's library and into her heart. They share one sublime summer of discovery, during which l'Inglese awakens the power of Rosa's sexuality, and together they reach new heights of culinary passion. When he vanishes unexpectedly, Rosa returns to her family's estate to grieve for her lost love only to find a new fulfilment, as well as many surprises, in the magic of her beloved cucina.

A love song to Italy, La Cucina is a celebration of all things sensual. It spills over with intense images, colours, fragrances, and exuberant characters, all reflecting the splendour of the Sicilian countryside in which it is set.

About the Author
Lily Prior lives in London. A great admirer of Italian cuisine and culture, she has travelled extensively in Italy. She is the author of La Cucina, Nectar and Ardour.

Customer Reviews

Warm-hearted but derivative
This book is a warm romance that I would probably have really enjoyed...if it wasn't for the fact that I'd already read 'Like Water for Chocolate'. I was very taken aback at how much Lily Prior had 'borrowed' from this book - the opening recipe instruction starts, almost word for word, in the way 'Water for Chocolate' does. Then, a few chapters later we are told that Rosa is born on a kitchen table, which is why she loves cooking - again, another paragraph taken straight out of 'Like water..' & the following descriptions of her sumputous cooking have a very familiar ring to them. I felt that although this story was sweet, the author should have worked harder to write an original book with her own slant. This book is OK but in terms of imagination, vivid description and depth of character, it is a pale, watery imitation compared to the brilliance of Joanne Harris's 'Chocolat' or Laura Esquivel's 'Like Water for CHocolate.'

Great Sicily, pleasure of the senses
I love Sicily and I love this book. This story is so real and so fictional at the same time. The funny things happening in a village, the naivity of a woman growing in that village. And then the sensual pleasures she gets from food... The discovery of other sensual pleasures with this wonderful man... I could not put this book down, I had to know the end! It's beautiful and fun. I loved it.

delicious!
Sensual, sensuous and raunchy, La Cucina explores the connections between food and sex in a way that I'd only come across - in a `softer' version - in Isabel Allende's Aphrodite.

The story is warm, touching, and unusual and Prior's writing shows a genuine affection for both her characters and food. I'll agree that she does get quite graphic, but never crude. Can't wait to read her other books.