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Renato's Luck

About the Book

Renato's Luck

Mi gusto questo gusto!"
"I want to taste this taste!"

Thirty-eight year-old Renato Tizzoni, in charge of the waterworks in the small Tuscan town of Sant' Angelo D'Asso, has always had a remarkable appetite for life. Indeed, sensual pleasures abound in the lush Italian countryside, from the hard, salty, tangy taste of the peccorino cheese he makes from the milk of his own sheep, to the soft curve of his wife's white neck as she bends down for a kiss. 

But as autumn arrives this year, Renato finds his life changing in ways he doesn't want: a government dam project will soon inundate the town, forcing its inhabitants to move; his mentor and surrogate father, Aristodemo Vezzosi, has died; his teenage daughter is turning into a sullen stranger; and a British actress who needed his help at her villa has awakened a desire for a woman other than his beloved wife, Milena. Suddenly the waterworks man finds his taste for life vanishing. 

Then Renato, who sees a significance in everything -- from the literal meaning of his own name to the finding of a inscribed water pipe beneath the piazza -- has a strange dream. Its message, as Renato interprets it, is that to change his luck, and that of the entire town, he must shake the Pope's hand while holding his own hand on his ass. Un colpo di culo is what they need: a stroke of ass, a stroke of luck. Who could not use a change of luck? Soon word spreads, and others learn of Renato's dream. He becomes a man with a mission, compiling a list of people who want their fortuna changed, among them the widow Vezzosi who is mourning her husband; his best friend, a broken-hearted American named Duncan; and his assistant Capelli, who makes blaspheming into a literary art. 

Yet another sudden death, a surprise confession from his daughter Petula, and an object found while he and his wife take the Italian evening stroll called la passeggiata will have an unexpected impact on Renato's luck as he then begins a wondrous, and hilarious, journey to the Vatican in Rome. 

Combining the humor and pathos of Life is Beautiful with the rich sensuality of Like Water for Chocolate, Jeff Shapiro's extraordinary novel portrays a culture that embraces food, beauty, and passion with equal abandon as it resonates with the triumph of the human spirit in the face of death and disappointment. Shapiro's affirmation of life in an impermanent world makes this a fierce, bright gem of tale, set in the special beauty of Tuscany, a place that is more than a geography: it is a gift to the world.

Renato's Luck
by Jeff Shapiro

  • Publication Date: September 25, 2012
  • Hardcover: 352 pages
  • Publisher: HarperCollins
  • ISBN-10: 0060194189
  • ISBN-13: 9780060194185