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The Secret of Selters
CIOCCOLATA
€7,95 EUR
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CIOCCOLATA
A great absurd novel about the pleasure of eating chocolate, being Italian, and other beautiful nonsense.
By Manfred Harlos
Short description:
An espresso.
A glass of grappa.
A hot Italian night by the sea.
And suddenly life loses its order.
CIOCCOLATA is a grand, absurd novel full of Dolce Vita, chocolate, melancholic humor, philosophical nonsense, and Italian art of living.
A book about:
the joy of indulgence,
beautiful little catastrophes,
espresso as a religion,
chocolate as a philosophy of life,
and the wonderful art of not taking life too seriously.
Warm, crazy, cinematic, and full of Italian atmosphere — like a lost Fellini film with cocoa and grappa.
Detailed description:
It starts harmlessly.
A man travels to Italy and essentially just wants to drink an espresso.
But Italy is not a country for harmless decisions.
Between hot coastal roads, philosophizing waiters, melted chocolate, melancholic sunsets, and small glasses of grappa, the order of his previous life slowly unravels — and perhaps precisely through this, he rediscovers something much more important.
CIOCCOLATA is not an ordinary novel.
It is:
a declaration of love for the Dolce Vita,
a satirical journey through the Italian art of living,
a melancholic-comic summer dream,
and a grand absurd story about pleasure, longing, and the freedom to be completely irrational sometimes.
Here, waiters discuss the meaning of life based on coffee types.
Here, old Gogomobiles probably have a soul.
Here, tiramisu is taken more seriously than politics.
And here, a glass of grappa at midnight can suddenly contain more truth than an entire self-help shelf.
With poetic language, Italian flair, philosophical nonsense with cream and grappa, and a unique rhythmic writing style, this novel transports its readers to small squares by the sea, into smoky cafés, and into summer nights full of music, chocolate, and emotional catastrophes.
This book is for everyone who:
loves Italian zest for life,
enjoys dark humor,
longs for sun, sea, and Dolce Vita,
likes to laugh,
likes to indulge,
and sometimes wonders if life might be much more beautiful if one had to function less.
CIOCCOLATA is warm, absurd, elegant, exaggerated, sentimental, funny, and sometimes surprisingly true.
Or as an Italian waiter in this novel would say:
"Life is too short for sad chocolate."
Welcome to the world of CIOCCOLATA.
Order an espresso.
Take a seat.
And forget reason for a moment.
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