Ardor: A Novel of Enchantment - Hardcover

Prior, Lily

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060527862 ISBN 13: 9780060527860

Publisher: Ecco, 2004

Synopsis

Set in the sultry heat of an Italian summer, Ardor is a delicious romantic comedy about unrequited love, unquenchable lust, and the hilarious consequences of mistaken passions.

When a lonely olive grower, Arcadio Carnabuci, sows his love seeds, he cannot imagine the chaos his magic fruit will bring. While Fernanda Pondrosa, the voluptuous woman of his dreams, evades his spell, Gezabel, a hardworking middle-aged mule, falls head over hooves in love with him. And, as Gezabel discovers, she is not the only one whose stars cross as the olive grower's ardor casts its magic over the region. Suddenly, the butcher and the baker are thinking murder, the village doctor and his nurse are driven to distraction, and a newborn is transformed into an angel. As the villagers alternate between love and war, remarkable phenomena add to the fevered atmosphere, making passions surge higher than the soaring temperatures of summer.

A new novel by the author of La Cucina and Nectar, Ardor is a wildly imaginative fairy tale for adults, full of twists and unexpected delights.

About this title

About the Author

Lily Prior is the author of La Cucina, Ardor, and Nectar and she divides her time between London and Italy.

From Booklist

When the object of your affection doesn't know you exist, that's tragic. When the one who puts you on a romantic pedestal is a mule, it's downright silly. Prior manages to pull off both scenarios with outrageous aplomb in her irresistibly funny, subtly wise, and zestfully romantic fairy tale set in the sultry village of Norcia. Arcadio Carnabuci has never been lucky in love. So desperate is he for romance that he buys magical "love seeds" from (who else?) a passing gypsy. The seeds, as magical seeds are wont to do, work all too well, charging the atmosphere around Norcia with a passion that is almost palpable. Everyone--man, woman, and beast (especially beast)--succumbs, with varying degrees of amorous success. Carnabuci may love Fernanda but Fernanda loves Primo, and Gezabel, the mule and story narrator (we told you this was a fairy tale), can't keep her big brown eyes off Carnabuci. Ludicrous, yes, but Prior's lustful farce is a merry romp through love's arduous maze. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: Ecco
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0060527862
• ISBN 13: 9780060527860
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224