Marlena de Blasi Books In Order

Publication Order of Italian Memoirs Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Cookbooks

Marlena de Blasi is the bestselling author of the bestselling fiction work “Amandine,” memoirs, and books about the regional foods of Italy.

Over the years, she has been a restaurant critic, chef, wine and food consultant, and journalist. She also happens to be the author of two internationally published Italian food cookbooks.
Alongside Fernando her husband who is a Venetian, she moved to San Casciano where she penned her work “Tuscan Secrets” before ultimately settling in Orvieto.

Marlena’s first ever job was when she was employed on the radio, which ultimately led to her becoming a TV face and voice. De Blasi used to work with the likes of Coty Perfumes and Peugeot among others making soft sells which she did for several years.
Marlena would then get employment at PBS, where she run a cooking program for several years. It was during this time that she developed a passion for cooking and was inspired by the sensuality and beauty of raw food.
As such, it was not a surprise when she published her debut work “Regional Foods of Northern Italy,” a few years later.

de Blasi has said that she had a thing for the written word for a very long time.

For more than a decade while she was living in the United States and working in journalism she used to ghostwrite cookbooks for busy chefs that could not do it themselves.

Journalism and ghostwriting inevitably left her feeling unsatisfied. She always felt that she was being censored and could not pour out all her passion. Things started changing when she got a call from a small publishing house.
The editor said she was ready to publish her book if she ever decided to write. It was a rare invitation though she did not realize it at the time and years would pass before she would think of writing her own work.
A few years after she got married and moved to Italy she was rummaging through her things when she saw the editor’s card. She was surprised that the editor would remember her.

The editor was true to her word and published her debut work “Regional Foods of Northern Italy.” She would then work with Viking to publish several memoirs and her bestselling Italian Memoirs series of novels.
“A Thousand Days in Venice” the first of the series was published in 2002.

Marlena de Blasi is now a full-time author living in a palazzo from the 14th century in an Umbioran hill town alongside the Via del Duomo. She lives a simple life filled with rituals such as going to Montanucciu her favorite cafe with her husband.
She can sometimes hit the bar up to four times a day looking for chocolate, cappuccino, pastry, aperitivi, and sympathy. Marlena makes use of her early mornings to write and heads to the morning markets at about nine.
It is at this time that she shops for lunch and sits in the cafe to talk to friends before heading home to put the bread in the oven.

They usually have their lunch at one and head home at about 3 pm where she will nap for an hour before she wakes up to write until 7 pm.

Once she is done writing, they usually take a stroll, during which they pick up things for dinner and chat with friends before hedging back home to have their dinner at about 9 pm before turning in.

In “Amandine,” Marlena de Blasi makes a remarkable debut in the world of fiction set in a Europe hurtling toward the Second World War.

The work opens in 1931 in Krakow where Amandine is a little baby that is conceived out of wedlock. She is a child born of a tragic inheritance and a foolish heart.

Its grandmother who is a countess claims the baby died as she believes this was the best way to protect her. The truth is that she takes the kid and leaves her In the French countryside at a remote convent.
She will be taken care of by Solange a governess that has been given a large sum of money. The governess calls the child Amandine a unique name and soon they have a very strong bond.

However, Solanges, care, and love cannot protect Amandine who is mistrusted b the convent girls and the abbess. The unusually curious and astute Amandine lives a childhood full of all manner of questions and challenges regarding her identity.
Ultimately, Solange is forced to choose the terrors of a global war outside the doors of the convent and the terrors inside it.
Running off with Solange they go on a years-long quest in France where they have to deal with all the treacheries of a land devastated by war and occupation.

Marlena de Blasi’s “A Thousand Days in Tuscany” is a work that is part memoir, part travelogue with a dash of cooking thrown in for good measure.

It tells of how the author met her spouse Fernando the Venetian banker while she was an American food writer and chef. They took an audacious leap leaving the exquisite world of Venice and moved to Tuscany to live in a roughly renovated stable.
However, it was love at first sight when they arrive in San Casciano dei Bagni the ancient village in the timeless countryside. It was a place with magnificent cooking and some sumptuous local vintage with friendly residents.
The village mago nicknamed old Barlozzo escorts the newcomers to the many festivals of Tuscany and invites them to hunt truffles, harvest grapes and gather chestnuts.

It is Barlozzo who introduces and guides them through the minefield that is the history of Tuscany small town and showed them the simple pleasure of country living.

“A Thousand Days in Venice” by Marlena de Blasi is the story of how the author met and married her Venetian husband Fernando.

He was at the Piazza San Marcoi when he looked over and saw her from afar. A few months later he once again saw her in a cafe in Venice and was convinced that fate wanted them to be together.

The problem is, he does not speak much English while she is a divorced American food writer that only knows Italian which has to do with food. On her part, Marlena believes she can no longer have intimacy with anyone let alone romance.
But within months of their fated meeting, she has moved in with the stranger in Venice. Vaguely baffled, she takes in his home with its customs, rituals, and foreigners.

Still, there are many delicious moments that invite her in as she cooks American food of fried onions, cornbread, and caviar for the locals. She also dances tango which she has almost forgotten since she learned it so long ago in middle school.

One Response to “Marlena de Blasi”

1. paula anderdon: 6 months ago

   Dear Marlena. It has been such a pleasure beyond description reading your books. it is ridiculously, the second time i have read a book twice. The first was 13 Moons by Charles Frazier. i did not like or could not read Cold Mt. but in 13 Moons you are mostly outside and on horseback. I am from Maine. a dairy farm and grew up in the sweet smelling barn with my grandparents upstairs and cousins all over town. I rsised my kiss off the grid as farms were becoming. from my point of view. not such wonderful feeling places. Anyway. i m back in my farm town by way of caring for my parents. and i run a little rural outside summer music program in honor for f my mother “Music for Mavis” Tuesdays at the Gazebo. We are doing an inside gathering under the library this winter once a month “Cabin Fever Concerts” We all pretty much love winter. the beef being when it’s cold but not much snow. We love the pure beauty of snow. So, I love ve your books, your people. I was trying to understand why i was able and wanting to read them again. Zi finally think it two things. maybe three. Getting to know you. the lovely surprise at very wonderful sentences smattered throughout. snd always wanting to read on. And al’s i realized realize i love your people. and reading twice i slow down enough to digest more. to absorb. yo let them all. you all effect me. i love your writing. Thank you. The only book i have not read is the recipe one or two. I have shared with my three or four deep reading friends snd said” just buy them Sll. it the first tim i have really tried to
   hang on yo
   my copies. or to keep track of where they are. So what’s next. Should i buy the recipe books. Start at the beginning for the third time. ??? Another book i love. “ La Cuchina” i ordered ad i had given it away so many times. It is lovely. Thanks for your time. If you ever make it to Msine or want to you are always welcome here. my parents old farmhouse. my rustic cabin in the hills where i raised my kids and my cousins farm. you might have heard of them as they were given the james Beard Award. Nezinscottf Farm in Turner Maine. We are all reading your books. eating cheese. baking artisan bread and toasting it in the fireplace and eating it with bean soup. AND ricotta cheese and home made maple syrup and pepper for desert. We have just begun. Come visit sometime talk at our library. eat our vegetables and enjoy. with love and appreciation. Paula Anderson.

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