Extra virgin

I have bought 3 copies of this book to give away and one to keep. Love this book.

This is a great book. Annie is a brilliant author/story teller. I loved her sense of humour which often had me laughing out loud. It is a story of her move to a small village in Italy and documents the characters she met, the experienced she had and the mistakes she made whilst adjusting to life in a new culture. I loved this book and would recommend this book and all her other books which I have also read (and re-read a few times too).

Thoroughly enjoyed this book! I am visiting Liguria next month.

Totally loved this book. Hearty, zesty made me hungry all the time for beautiful Italian food and landscapes. Wanted to meet all of those people and I thank Annie for taking me inside her wonderful adventure.

Enjoyable book.

Easy to read and easy to picture.

Love this book

I bought this book as a gift for my father and he said he really enjoyed reading it.

Die Bewertung eines Buches ist natürlich immer sehr individuell - hier ganz besonders. Ich hatte zuerst die deutsche Fassung des zweiten Ligurien-Buchs von Annie Hawes gelesen - Picknick im Olivenhain. Da fand ich schon die Insider-Sichtweise einer Außenseiterin interessant. Über den Schreibstil kann man sicher streiten. Aber wenn es nicht hoch literarisch professionell sein muss, kommt das Buch sehr locker und unterhaltsam rüber. Und für den Italienfan wird auch eine Menge Einblick in Lebensart, Geschichte und Region geboten - aus sehr persönlicher Sicht natürlich. Dieses Buch hier habe ich mir während eines Intalienurlaubs in Diano Marino heruntergeladen - in der Meinung, es sei die e-book-Version des vorher gelesenen Buchs, auf welches ich vor Ort keinen Zugriff hatte. Damit hat sich für mich dieser Kreis erweitert und - nachdem ich das zweite Buch zuhause nochmal gelesen habe - auch geschlossen. Meine Beziehung zu "den Dianos", der ganzen Region, zum Olivenöl und zu Italien überhaupt hat sich durch diese Lektüre auf angenehme, interessante und lockere Weise auf jeden Fall vertieft. Wir werden auch nicht zum letzten Mal in dieser Ecke Italiens gewesen sein. Die englische Fassung fand ich übrigens besser als die deutsche - in die ich zuhause auch mal reingelsen habe. Dort geht durch die Übersetzung einiges von der Originalgeschichte verloren. Also klare Empfehlung für das Original. Das macht auch manche An- und Einsichten der Autorin besser verständlich.

top quality

Annie Hawes paints an excellent picture of her experience without the rose-tinted point of view so often used in this kind of book. The reader grows to know the characters as Annie did. She never judges people and you don't have to endure dreary, overblown descriptions of people, you get to know them through the situations Annie relates and therefore can make your own judgements. I felt by the end of the book that I knew everybody in it and could not wait for further news, in particular there is something bubbling just under the surface... if you are enjoying it half way through, go and buy the second book so you you don't have to wait. In summary enchanting, honest, humorous - a genuinely good read.

If you are expecting sun, sea and sex stories, this is not the book for you. It is a book that wonderfully describes the countryside and the people of Liguria, and if these descriptions are repeated over and over again, they only serve to help you understand the rural communities in this part of Italy, and the people, whose characters have been shaped by war and hardship and a conflict between the Catholic Church and the Communist Party. Annie Hawes has shown how the village has been dragged towards the 21st century, but how she herself was content to let go of urban British life. I loved it, and felt I knew every village, every villager and every olive tree!

io l'ho comprato per capire come gli inglesi vedono gli italiani e i nostri usi e costumi. Il libro non è male, a volte viene fuori che ci considerano bizzarri (diciamo così). Ovviamente data la natura del libro non si può considerare avvincente.