KEY POINTS:
Italy, they say, is not what it used to be. Every picturesque village now contains, in addition to the church with priceless faded frescoes, the oddball aristos and charming ruffians, the surfeit of pasta and peppers and plonk, the broken-down villas and tacky trattorias. In addition to this, in every village there are now jostling crowds of emigre writers, milling around the village campo, scrounging anecdotes from the locals for their next food-life-Italy book.
Marlena de Blasi is their queen. Her first book, A Thousand Days in Venice, was a genre-defining account of going to a magic city and falling in love with a tall, dark and magically handsome stranger. And marrying him.
Yet though her life appeared even then to comprise an endless series of cliches, she got away with it because she can write. The prose fair sparkled along.
Then came Tuscan Secrets, in which Marlena and her Fernando moved to Tuscany. Subtly different food, less water, more donkeys. Again, she got away with it. The tale disarmed you. It was charming.
And now, Umbria. The publisher may have preferred somewhere more widely known - "Please Marlena, it's very nice in Sicily" - but Marlena knows her food and she also knows Umbria is the Next Big Thing. Well, it will be now she has done it.
A clutch of hillside townships nestling in the middle of Italy, Umbria is indeed a great food region. The locals have more food festivals than holy days, they specialise in wild boar, mushrooms and truffles, and there are rivers of wine. Adorable crusty signore and their adorable crusty signori are waiting to cook for you in every village. And you thought Tuscany was charming.
You may find that a book written so brazenly to a formula becomes less compelling the more you read. You may wish that a writer of such obvious ability might try a little harder for, well, insight.
But Marlena is having too good a time with Fernando and all that food. And if you are up for that, the thing to do is simply give thanks that she is happy to share.
*Allen & Unwin, $35
* Simon Wilson is an Auckland reviewer.
