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Stefania Bertola

    December 27, 1952

    A writer and translator, she also worked for radio and television. Her novels blend sentiment, humor, and a sense of the surreal, often with a light and entertaining tone reminiscent of English-language chick lit. While her settings and themes diverge from the typical conventions of that genre, her distinct voice and approach to storytelling create a unique literary experience. She is also an accomplished translator from English, a screenwriter, and a radio author.

     A neve ferma
    The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
    Ordinary Heroes
    Happy End und Blümchenkaffee
    Mit Links
    The Burnout
    • The Burnout

      • 383 pages
      • 14 hours of reading

      Sasha is well and truly over it all- work (all-consuming), friendships (on the back burner), sex-life (non-existent). Sasha has hit a brick wall. Armed with good intentions to drink kale smoothies, try yoga and find solitude, she heads to the Devon resort she loved as a child. But it's off-season, the hotel is falling apart and now she has to share the beach with someone else- a grumpy, stressed-out guy called Finn. How can she commune with nature when he's sitting on a rock, watching her? Especially when they don't agree on burnout cures. (Sasha- manifesting, wild swimming, secret Mars bars; Finn- drinking whisky.) But when curious messages start appearing on the beach, Sasha and Finn are forced to begin talking - about everything. What's the mystery? Why are they both burned out? What exactly is 'manifesting', anyway? They might discover that they have more in common than they think

      The Burnout
    • »Den geliebten Mann beim Schlafen zu betrachten, ist eine der unheilbringendsten weiblichen Aktivitäten überhaupt.« Adele ist 32 Jahre alt und hat noch keinen Tag im Leben gearbeitet. Aber eines Morgens muss sie feststellen, dass ihre perfekte Welt ein Scherbenhaufen ist: Ihr Mann hat Konkurs angemeldet, die Bankkonten geplündert und ist mit seiner Geliebten getürmt. Nur den riesigen Hund seiner neuen Lebensgefährtin hat er dagelassen. Genau als Adele sich dieses Köters elegant entledigen will, passiert es: Eine junge Frau mit Baby auf dem Arm springt in ihr Auto und bestürmt sie, sofort loszufahren: es gehe um Leben und Tod ... Der Beginn einer wunderbaren Freundschaft - zwischen zwei Frauen, die verschiedener nicht sein könnten: Adele könnte einem Prada-Prospekt entlaufen sein, Eva einer Greenpeace-Broschüre. Adele ist organisiert und missmutig, Eva ein Katastrophenmagnet, aber tiefenentspannt. Bald teilen sie nicht nur ein Haus, sondern auch eine erbitterte Feindin und einen viel zu verführerischen Tunichtgut. Zwangsläufig lernt die eine von der anderen, die eigenen Gewissheiten auf den Kopf zu stellen.

      Mit Links
    • Mit 58 Jahren, da fängt das Leben an. Und für die Liebe ist man nie zu alt! Olimpia, 58 Jahre alt, Bibliothekarin und Single mit zwei Katzen, träumt schon lange von der Schriftstellerei. Wenn nicht jetzt, wann dann? Kurzerhand kratzt sie ihre Ersparnisse zusammen und besucht einen Schreibworkshop, der ihr in einer Woche das nötige Handwerkszeug vermitteln soll, um einen Heftchenroman zu schreiben. Unter den Augen der gestrengen Kursleiterin Leonora, einer Grande Dame der Groschenliteratur, verfassen die sechzehn Teilnehmer Geschichten voller Liebe und Leidenschaft. Doch Herzflattern und amouröse Verwicklungen gibt es nicht nur auf dem Papier – sondern auch im echten Leben ...

      Happy End und Blümchenkaffee
    • Ordinary Heroes

      • 494 pages
      • 18 hours of reading
      3.6(11)Add rating

      In this book, Stewart Dubinsky knew his father, David, had served in World War II, but had been told very little about his experiences. When he finds, after his father's death, a packet of wartime letters to a former fiancée and learns of David's court-ma

      Ordinary Heroes
    • The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

      • 373 pages
      • 14 hours of reading
      3.8(109900)Add rating

      It is the summer of 1950 - and at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw, young Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, is intrigued by a series of inexplicable events: A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Then, hours later, Flavia finds an man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath. For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begings in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. "This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life."

      The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
    • Emma, aiutante pasticcera, perde l'amore della sua vita tre giorni dopo averlo trovato. Elena lo sta cercando da trent'anni. Camelia, invece, si innamora continuamente, di chiunque. Bianca è impegnata in una battaglia contro un giovane dottore, più volte ladro, il tutto gravita, fra ricette paradisiache, intorno alla pasticceria Delacroix.

       A neve ferma
    • Ne parliamo a cena

      • 224 pages
      • 8 hours of reading
      3.7(267)Add rating

      Sofia è appena stata piantata dal marito e quel fetente, non contento di spassarsela con una collega, pretende anche di toglierle la casa. È il momento, dunque, di radunare le cugine-amiche per una cena di consulto. Ed eccole là, tutte e cinque, attorno al tavolo, davanti a un bel risottino: c'è Costanza - la voce narrante - che non si è mai sposata perché l'uomo che ama è già sposato; Bibi, divorziata ma che sogna di riconciliarsi col marito; Irene, sempre sul punto di separarsi, ma che non si decide mai e Veronica, l'unica senza problemi e per questo terrorizzata che tanta felicità non possa durare in eterno. Così, tra il primo e il dessert scorrono le vite delle cinque amiche con i loro amori, i loro dolori, le loro follie, le loro prese in giro, i loro battibecchi, le loro critiche, costruttive o distruttive, ma sempre piene di humour e di quelle verità che possono essere accettate solo grazie a una bella e sana risata e a un profondo sentimento di complicità.

      Ne parliamo a cena
    • The Hive

      • 384 pages
      • 14 hours of reading
      3.0(90)Add rating

      It's the start of another school year at St Ambrose. But while the children are in the classroom colouring in, their mothers are learning sharper lessons on the other side of the school gates. Lessons in friendship. Lessons in betrayal. Lessons in the laws of community, the transience of power and how to get invited to lunch. Beatrice - undisputed queen bee. Ruler, by Divine Right, of all school fund-raising, this year, last year and, surely, for many years to come. Heather - desperate to volunteer, desperate to be noticed, desperate just to belong. Georgie - desperate for a fag. And Rachel - watching them all, keeping her distance. But soon to discover that the line between amused observer and miserable outcast is a thin one. From the joys and perils (well, mainly perils) of the Lunch Ladder, to the military operation that is the Car Boot Sale, via the dos and don'ts of dressing your child as a Dalek, all human life is here.

      The Hive
    • Luna di Luxor

      Romanzo

      • 168 pages
      • 6 hours of reading

      Miranda non vuole fare un lavoro qualunque. No: lei vuole lavorare nella redazione di una rivista femminile, una di quelle in cui vip blasonati si fanno fotografare mentre baciano timide cameriere e stelle dello spettacolo rovinano famiglie impeccabili; una di quelle in cui gli articoli si chiamano 'scoop' e la frivolezza esonda dalle pagine come la schiuma da una bottiglia di champagne. Ed ecco che la sua amica Claudia, scrittrice esordiente e maliarda da fumetto, le offre un'occasione imperdibile: un lavoro da inviata speciale, in incognito, presso la dimora dei principi Beneaccorsi. Ma Miranda si accorgerà ben presto che un desiderio esaudito può far male come e più di un tradimento... Tra un palazzo nella campagna toscana, una villa sulla Costa Azzurra e una fattoria in Scozia sfrecciano bionde principesse e perfide brune, divi del rock e languidi pianisti che si amano e sparano, spiano e tradiscono, montano e smontano film e seduzioni, seminando lungo il percorso biscotti, sospetti, vermi volanti e oche mandarine.

      Luna di Luxor