Sunflower Publishing Book Reviews

    Finding Valentino By Angela Di Sciascio SUMMARY: Angela Di Sciascio's father can no longer describe his past, lost in a world ravaged by Alzheimer’s disease. Deciding not to let his story fade, Angela embarks on a voyage that takes her through four seasons in her father’s Italy, reconnecting to her ancestry and absorbing all of its chaos, beauty and style. Meal by meal at her father’s family table and step by step through the Italian countryside, she slowly comes to understand the young Valentino who left for the new world. Along the way, she discovers the simple pleasures of rustic polenta high in the mountains, pesto on the Ligurian coast and shares melt-in-your-mouth food with friends in boisterous Rome. But she is always drawn back to the small hamlet tucked in the embrace of the Abruzzo mountains and the cuisine that feeds her soul, sharing with us her family traditional recipes, as well as the joy of finding her father’s home.   MY REVIEW: I think ...

    Gran Sasso   By Gary Parkins SUMMARY: I n 1943, Mussolini is deposed and taken to a secret location. But in London, Winston Churchill is troubled. With Mussolini gone, there is nothing to stop Italy's Communists from forming a Bolshevik government in the north. It is an unbeatable nightmare scenario. The stakes could not be higher. If they lose Southern Europe to Stalin, the Allies would lose the war in Europe.  Churchill attempts a desperate gamble. The only thing that can head off the Communists' takeover is to put Mussolini back in power, but naturally, Churchill cannot be seen to arrange such a thing. Could Churchill's agents persuade Hitler's forces to rescue Mussolini without tipping their hand? Churchill sends in his top Italian SOE agent, Major George Huntington on a secret mission to Rome to spread the rumour that Churchill wants Mussolini found and put on trial in London for war crimes. Hitler is enraged and this news and sends his top SS Comma...

    Home to Italy By Peter Pezzelli SUMMARY: When her father's best friend returns to Abruzzo, Lucrezia, a beautiful widow, finds herself drawn to this handsome American who is also haunted by tragedy, and together they embark on a passionate relationship that heals the pain of the past and gives them both a second chance at love. In this delightful, moving novel, Peter Pezzelli brings to life the earthy sensuality of Italy's Abruzzo region— the smell of just-baked bread wafting through the village piazza; the shopkeepers sweeping the sidewalks first thing in the morning; groups of cyclists dotting the mountain roads—and spins a story of May-December romance as sharp and delicious as the olives of Villa San Giuseppe .   MY REVIEW: This is a lovely, easy read and feel-good book. The perfect read for anyone seeking an escape to the Italian countryside. It is a story about the trials and tribulations of life. Marriage, love, work, friends and family. Sometimes...

    Abruzzo Intrigue By Bluette Matthey SUMMARY Hardy Durkin, owner of Durkin Tours brings a group of American middle-aged hikers to Abruzzo for a ten-day tour where they experience the unique culture, food and history of the region. Some of the characters are who they seem to be, but some are not. One member of the group, a grieving widow, plans to steal a precious religious relic from a church in Lanciano. The book is a collision of values and traditions while hiking through the often-overlooked beauty of ancient Abruzzo.   MY REVIEW: This book is a fusion of an Agatha Christie detective novel with a unique travel guide. A murder or two, a robbery, drama and colourful suspects. Even Guiseppe, the minibus driver behaves in a furtive way. It is quite a complex plot, twisting and turning to heighten the intrigue. The backdrop is the ‘green heart’ of Europe, the region of Abruzzo so there are many references to many places which the reader would find familiar....

My Italian Country Childhood by Aldo Zilli SUMMARY A heart-warming story of a chef’s journey from the hills of Abruzzo to the heart of Soho. With endless enthusiasm, charm and good humour, Alduccio Zilli transformed the way London restaurants were run - and he soon had every major celebrity flocking to his doors. Along the way Zilli survived prison, divorce, health scares and financial collapse.    MY REVIEW: This is a light-hearted read about the humble beginnings of Sig Zilli. Born the youngest of eight children to poor Italian farmers. The first few chapters detail the drudgery of life on a farm and the  arduous tasks which all the siblings had a duty to perform. Milking the cows, tending the pigs, the chickens and the backbreaking harvesting of olives, grapes and cherries. His mother started her daily chores at dawn, cooking and baking on a woodburning stove with no gas, electricity or running water. His earliest memories are of going to the well to fetch water for h...

    The Peasants of Abruzzo (I Contadini d’Abruzzo) By Roberta Scipioni Ball SUMMARY: The year is 1910. Fifty years after Italy’s unification. The southern regions remain destitute, the peasants left with nothing. Living in the remote mountains of Abruzzo, Anselmo Scipioni knows he can either risk starvation or emigrate like millions of others. Angela Tortora is a dutiful girl from a nearby village, cursed with a crooked spine and a domineering mother. Anselmo’s brother, Vittorio is an artless shepherd who admires Angela at her labours, unknowingly causing her to fall in love with him. Keenly aware that Angela’s prospects for marriage are poor, her mother seeks the counsel of the village sorceress (strega).Together, they hatch a plan to trap the hapless Vittorio but the plan fails, Vittorio flees and the heartbroken Angela is forced to marry Anselmo, a man whom she does not love. Together, they immigrate to America and settle in a small canal town in western New Yo...

  The Case of the Sleeping Beauty By Richard Walmsley SUMMARY I nspector Beppe Stancato, driven from his native Calabria by threats from his local mafia, finds himself appointed commissario in the town of Pescara, in Abruzzo, just prior to the earthquake which struck the mountain capital city of L'Aquila in 2009. The unexpected discovery of a twenty-two year old girl, lying drugged and unconscious, sparks off a complex investigation involving a seismologist accused of manslaughter and a fugitive mafia boss suspected of involvement in illegal building contracts. The girl is soon nicknamed "The Sleeping Beauty" by the investigating team - reflecting the locals' name for the Gran Sasso mountain range, uncannily reminiscent of the prone figure of a sleeping woman. Beppe is faced with the task of saving the girl whilst outwitting the crooked seismologist and the wily Mafioso. His own personal life is anything but straightforward. Will he be able to live up to the expectati...