La gola

Summary

On the fault-line of two imaginary duchies—one a cauldron of perpetual banquets, the other a snow-cool realm of abstinent fastidiousness—hovers Frescalinda, a countess whose pulse beats to the drum of appetite yet whose bloodline is bifurcated by treaty and table etiquette. Court astronomers chart her future like a dubious soufflé: the rising marriage of state that will glue Glotonia’s gluttonous nobles to Frescalia’s frosty magistrates, a gastronomic détente sealed over a betrothed body. Enter Gallardo Amore: mercenary, trencherman, poet of the palate, whose sabre is as swift as his palate is wide. Their clandestine trysts take place in buttery moonlight amid spits of swan and sarcasm; every kiss tastes of saffron and subversion. The Great Duchess, a woman who has weaponized etiquette into slow-acting poison, orchestrates a matrimonial masque whose layers rival mille-feuille. Frescalinda must choose: fork or fiancé? Ladle or legatee? In a climactic bacchanal staged like a Last Supper painted by Brueghel on peyote, alliances curdle, aspic solidifies into armor, and a single bite of poisoned marzipan threatens to collapse two thrones into one grave.

Synopsis

Glotonia and Frescalia are neighbor Ducal lands. In Glotonia everyone is fond of food. Young countess Frescalinda, daughter of a citizen of each country and tutored by the Great Duchess, is compelled to marry, but she has fallen in love with captain Gallardo Amore and will try everything before acceding to an unhappy marriage.