Wedding Officer

In the luscious tradition ofChocolatandCaptain Corelli's Mandolin, acclaimed novelist Anthony Capella brings us a tale of war-torn Europeand 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 localosteriaand 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 cookand 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. The questions and discussion topics that follow are intended to enhance your reading of Anthony Cappella'sThe Wedding Officer.We hope they will enrich your experience of this unique and delectable novel.Capella, Anthony is the author of 'Wedding Officer ', published 2007 under ISBN 9780553805475 and ISBN 0553805479.