Valerie Martin

"La Cucina is a heady concoction, like a long meal with relatives, by turns funny, frightening, sad, and joyful. Lily Prior has given us a startling and fresh look at Sicily, a land of economic hardship, great beauty, and ancient magic, not all of it benevolent. I've rarely seen a first novel of such originality and confidence, or encountered a narrator as quirky and engaging as Rosa Fiore, a spinster who finds in cooking what saints find in prayer: consolation, recollection, and unexpectedly, ecstasy. What an accomplished novel!"

Joanne Harris

"Thank you so much giving me the opportunity to read "La Cucina" by Lily Prior, which I enjoyed enormously. It is a wonderful novel; a festival of life and all its pleasures, bursting with passion and extravagant color. The author's voice is utterly distinctive, original and sincere, and the story is genuinely touching - and at times very funny - without ever descending into sentimentality. The characters form a charmingly riotous collection of eccentrics, hedonists, prudes, lovers, Mafiosi, cheesemakers, olive-growers, gardeners and cooks of all kinds, while the heroine herself is a delightful creation; sensual, womanly, strong and independent. Similar in some ways to "Like Water for Chocolate", this novel celebrates love, the family, the body and food with a joyous, hopeful exuberance. Like an excellent meal, it leaves the reader feeling warm, satisfied and in greater harmony with herself and the human race."

Publisher's Weekly

Sumptuously appointed, celebratory and sensuous, this debut novel is a mouth-watering blend of commedia dell'arte and Greek tragedy. Prior cooks up a cinematic yarn full of characters so rich you'll fear they're fattening, but readers will be sure to splurge on this saucy tale chock full of sex, recipes and murder. Born in 1915, Rosa Fiore grows up on the family farm in the Sicilian village of Castiglione with six older brothers and her younger Siamese twin siblings, Guera and Pace (War and Peace). Her childhood is punctuated by her parents' frequent lovemaking and the "disappearances" orchestrated by the local Mafiosi. Rosa spends most of her time in what is really the core of the family, la cucina, the kitchen, which is the outlet for all Rosa's passions except one, her over, Bartolomeo. After he is murdered when she is 18, she flees to the big city of Palermo. There she becomes a librarian, abstaining from the pleasures of cooking and love for 25 years. One day, a mysterious Englishman named Randolph Hunt comes into the library, claiming to be researching the regional cuisine of Rosa's youth. She calls him simply l'Ingelese. Reawakening her dormant spirit, l'Inglese initiates Rosa into the world of sexual and gastronomic abandon. But along with love comes risk of pain. When l'Inglese mysteriously "disappears", can the local mafia be involved? Ironic humor, fantastical subplot twists, attention to touching detail in setting and tone and a delightful gift for characterisation make this sexy black comedy an award-winning recipe for pleasure. The combination of sex and food will undoubtedly invite comparisons with Like Water for Chocolate and 8½ Weeks. Add a dash of Goodfellas, and there's something for every one. ã Publishers Weekly 2000

Library Journal Review

Rosa Fiore, a middle-aged, overweight Italian librarian in Palermo, spends a quarter of a century furiously, exquisitely cooking away memories of the tragic murder of her first and only lover, Bartollomeo, whose throat was slit by his own father. Rosa's self-imposed exile, far from home, is filled with recipes so delicious she drives her neighbors wild. Rosa's dormant passion explodes in the arms of a mysterious stranger, l'Inglese, who enters her library to do research and immediately professes uncontrollable desire for Rosa's body and for her cooking knowledge. Thus begins a summer of gourmet meals and noisy sex. When l'Inglese disappears, Rosa's tortured daydreams of past frolicking lead to a house fire and her near death. Her slow recuperation begins when she is rescued by her long-estranged family, who bring her home. Reminiscent of Laura Esquivel and John Irving, mixed with a healthy dollop of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Prior's debut is clever, untamed, funny, and at times shocking.