February 07, 2015

Nicky Pellegrino travels to Italy to research One Summer In Venice


Most of us have plenty of things to be happy about. However in the headlong rush of everyday life it's easy to fail to appreciate them and instead let great chunks of our time drift by existing in a fug of so-so-ness – not depressed exactly, just not really happy./div>

So what if you made a list of the ten things that make you happy? Not the universal stuff like family, friends, holidays and chocolate but the ones particular to you – your own personal happiness recipe – and then try to design a life around it. After reading Gretchin Rubin's The Happiness Project, bestselling New Zealand author and journalist Nicky Pellegrino decided that she should do just that. Not only should she undertake this project, but why not write a novel, based around a character who decides to do just that too. So she picks up her life, and decides to move to Venice.


Praise for Nicky's previous title, RECIPE FOR LIFE
RECIPE FOR LIFE pulls off the rare trick of being both gritty and lyrical, heartrending and compelling. A novel about how easy it is to become an observer in your own life, and the joy of learning to live again. It also made me very hungry! — Jojo Moyes

 Published by Hachette Australia in April 2015, format, RRP $29.99, Ebook RRP$16.99


IN THE MAZE OF VENICE'S CANALS, BRIDGES AND PIAZZAS, ONE WOMAN SETS HERSELF A GOAL TO FIND THE TEN THINGS THAT COULD BE THE KEY TO HER HAPPINESS.

'This isn't a mid-life crisis OK? For a start I'm not old enough yet to have one of those. I'm calling it a happiness project. I've stolen an entire summer from my life and by the time it's over I plan to leave this place with a list in my hand. The ten things that make me happy, that's all I want to know. How difficult can it be? They may be small things - a perfect cup of coffee, a day without rain - or bigger ones. It's still the beginning so how can I know?'

Addolorata Martinelli knows she should be happy. She has everything she thought she wanted - her own business, a husband, a child. So why does she feel as if something is missing? Then when her restaurant, Little Italy, is slated by a reviewer, she realises that she's lost the one thing she thought she could always count on, her love of food.

So Addolorata heads to Venice for a summer alone, aiming to find the ten things that make her happy. Once she's found them, she'll construct a new life around her ten things, but will they include her life in London?

It was Nicky Pellegrino's Italian father who gave her family a true passion for food. Now living in New Zealand, working as a journalist, Nicky hordes her holidays so that she and her husband can return to Italy to see family, eat mozzarella and research her books.

Nicky was the former editor of the New Zealand Women's Weekly, and still works as regular columnist for the magazine. One Summer in Venice was born after Nicky read Gretchin Rubin's The Happiness Project, and decided to try and design her life around it, and create her own personal happiness recipe.

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