- See more at: http://faber.co.uk/catalog/cooking-wi... Gerald Samper, an effete Englishman, lives on a hilltop in Tuscany. He is a ghostwriter for celebrities, and a foodie, whose weird tastes include Mussels in Chocolate and Garlic and Fernet Branca Ice Cream. His idyll is shattered by the arrival of Marta, a vulgar woman from a former Soviet republic now run by gangs - See more at: http://faber.co.uk/catalog/cooking-wi... Gerald Samper, an effete Englishman, lives on a hilltop in Tuscany. He is a ghostwriter for celebrities, and a foodie, whose weird tastes include Mussels in Chocolate and Garlic and Fernet Branca Ice Cream. His idyll is shattered by the arrival of Marta, a vulgar woman from a former Soviet republic now run by gangsters, notably male members of her family. She is a composer in a neo-folk style who claims to be writing a score for a trendy Italian film director. The neighbours lives disastrously intertwine. The entourages of the rock star and the director come and go; mysterious black helicopters bring news of mayhem in Voynova, Martas homeland; and along the way the English obsession with Tuscany is satirized mercilessly. A playful book, full of fun and games. There is so much pleasure to be had from Hamilton-Patersons delight in language and wicked way with unreliable narrators. . . . The books effect is achieved almost entirely through the comic magnetism of a single character.- The Times Literary Supplement A skillful, highly original writer. . . . The elegant language, witty asides and vivid observations are memorable.- The Literary Review Im bowled over by the sheer imaginative brilliance of the man.-Barry Humphries I love his elegant and intensely evocative style: strangeness lifts off his pages like a rare perfume.-J.G. Ballard A work of comic genius.- The Independent A wonderfully rich alloy of sub-Wildean witticisms and nonsense, Cooking with Fernet Branca had me laughing out loud and uproariously.-Ian Thomson, Sunday Telegraph 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 books title. Geralds 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.