Carolina had only one thing in mind: to show everyone that she wasn’t a little girl anymore. That she could do well on her own. That she was a person with her own dreams and opinions and who knew what she wanted to do with her life. Well, at least she was willing to find out. An unexpected job interview via Skype and a job offer in Napoli help just graduated Dr Carolina decide to embark on the craziest adventure of her life.

In Brazil, her parents can’t understand what they’ve done wrong.

In Napoli, there is her English teaching job… and one of the most handsome (and richest) men she’s ever met ~ one of her students.

In Napoli, there is also Margherita pizza… and the sweetest man she’s ever met ~ her local pizzaiolo.

Carolina will find out that choosing a pizza topping isn’t the most difficult thing to do, after all…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I don’t think I’ve ever written about writing my novel, except for when I had to write my dissertation, that is. And, man, that was hard.

I went back to my dissertation to get some ideas for this presentation page and you’ll probably laugh at what I’m going to say to you now, but Loveandpizza.it started as a “revenge novel”!Not revenge for me. But revenge for my youngest sister, who’s the inspiration for Carolina. - Thank you, Xu! I don’t think the other person involved knows about this - obviously, no real names were mentioned, and characteristics of different people I met throughout my life were mixed to create Jean, the bastard boyfriend who betrayed Carolina (her words, not mine!).

 

For this introduction page, I’ve separated a few excerpts from my Masters dissertation, which tells a bit about this novel, which I loved so much to write (so much that some days I was so angry at one character or another that I had writer’s block!). I hope you enjoy it.

 

Ah, and before I forget, the translation of Loveandpizza.it to Portuguese is on the way, and it’s been very well looked after by my dear friend Farah Serrahe’s got a way with words! If you speak Portuguese, you must check her work HERE!!

 

Note: below are excerpts from my master's dissertation “MA in English and Creative Writing, by Cardiff Metropolitan University, 2013.”

 

Loveandpizza.it is a chick-lit novel set in Brazil and Naples, Italy, in the school year of 2008/2009. The narrative follows the experience and personal growth of a recently graduated doctor, Carolina, a sensitive, romantic and naïve Brazilian, who has been cheated on and dumped by Jean, her French-descendant boyfriend, right before her final exams, and who decides to have a year off away, teaching English.

 

The secondary idea of Loveandpizza.it is to tell tales of Naples and its peculiar inhabitants, seen through an outsider’s eyes, who is trying to find out who she really is and where she comes from. The chapters have been told in a funny, tragic and dramatic way, which are some of Carolina’s personality traits. Carolina personifies the female flaneur, wandering around the streets of Naples and popular touristic places.

 

The stories depict funny characters and their way of living life (the art of il dolce far niente, for instance, meaning the art of “the sweetness of doing nothing”) and dealing with everyday problems. Naples has been chosen for its chaos, as well as liveliness. The former is what her life is like now; the latter is what she is trying to recover. She goes to Naples to “run away from home” and ends up “finding home”. In the middle of the chaos she’s living, she’s able to find the spirit and energy she needs to carry on living her life the way she believes is right.

 

Goethe’s Italian Journey (published in 1816/17), is one of the books which have inspired me, and in it he describes what will attract the main character to this city and its people so much: “Naples is a Paradise: everyone lives in a state of intoxicated self-forgetfulness, myself included. I seem to be a completely different person whom I hardly recognize. Yesterday I thought to myself: Either you were mad before, or you are mad now.” (p.207)

 

Besides, De Crescenzo’s Thus Spake Bellavista (1989) helped set the mood for Carolina’s adventures and stories, giving her the support she needs to prove that some weird and funny things really happen in this place (unbelievable to the outsider’s eyes) and with this people.

 

This novel is about the search of a young girl and her beginning of a life on her own. It is filled with friendship and teaching anecdotes, as well as the common ingredients of chick-lit fiction: love, relationships, dating, family, roommates, corporate environment and family. Also present in this novel is the issue of social classes’ differences and their consequences, such as prejudice, poverty and violence. As the narrative builds, the main character experiences love and frustration for the first time without having her family around and she has the support of her best friend.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now that you know the story, I'll tell you a little bit about the process of writing Loveandpizza.it. Once again, with anecdotes and excuses, because of course there had to be some, right? But if you want to skip this part, you have a few options:

 

See you soon!

Dani