She is not loved, she is loved by the public, an unexpectedly transversal public that adores her novels which explore the latitudes of the new “romance”: Felicia Kingsley – 14 bestselling novels, three of which will become films (“No Country for Singles”, directed by Laura Chiossone and written by Alessandra Martellini, Giulia Magda Martinez and Matteo Viscontiis about to be released on the Prime Video platform), the most read Italian author of 2023 (almost three million copies in Italy, but it is also translated in 16 countries), winner of the TikTok Book Award as writer of the year – tomorrow she will be at Reggio Calabria, in a meeting and copy signing organized by the Ave-Ubik bookshop (4.30 pm), and will dialogue with Cristina Marra on the latest book fresh off the press, «A conquest off the menu» (by the publisher of all his novels, Newton Compton), which has already climbed the charts.
In the novel, set in New York, everything contributes to… dividing and then uniting a couple predestined from their name, Julia Villa known as Juliet and Dwight Faraday known as Romeoundercover FBI agent who must investigate the “not exactly legal” world of Julia’s family restaurant, a chaotic and passionate “Italian” family, where the “arancino-arancina” feud rages and certain friendships and acquaintances make one think of the “Godfather” ». Felicia, the happy literary pseudonym of Serena Artioli, an architect from Modena who has now been permanently awarded the title of “Italian queen of romance” (but her interest in “feminine” writing is much broader: she edited the introduction of «All the novels by Jane Austen” in its unabridged edition, and translated “A Girl Out of Fashion” by Louisa May Alcott, immortal author of “Little Women”, both for Newton Compton), answered our questions.
Food, cooking, the golden world of chefs are a robust global myth of our present, expressed in countless TV programmes, films, novels and autobiographies. How did you choose to insert it into your very special “genre”, balanced with the love story and the crime subplot?
«The world of professional kitchens has always fascinated me and I love the light-hearted way with which the late chef Anthony Bourdain always described it – without filters – in his culinary chronicles and by his own admission it is an environment in which one often finds oneself to work side by side even with people who have previously had problems with the law. The plot took off from this idea.”
What was the spark, the suggestion that gave rise to this particular novel?
«Precisely the desire to tell a love story, of misunderstandings and skirmishes in front of the flames of the stove. After all, cooking is an expression of love, especially for us Italians.”
It is quite daring to insert a theme such as the protagonist’s illness, affected by Crohn’s disease, which forces her to “re-establish the relationship with herself and her body”, including her profession, linked to food: but her heroines, or the heroines of the most modern “romance” re-establish worlds and change the cards on the table – and even in bed – or at least they try, right?
«Julia has to start loving herself again in every way possible and, although she could have done it on her own, Dwight has accelerated the process. She, like all my protagonists, is a contemporary woman, with her insecurities and her ambitions, her passions and her limits that she tries to overcome, and also tries to break down the stereotypes that still affect the female universe today.”
So, let it be “romance”: how would you define it today? What survives of the classic “romantic comedy” and what has it evolved into, what can it reflect our times?
«The romantic comedy is one of the many ways in which love can be told. I prefer it because I believe that through lightness and laughter, we can touch on themes and chords that can spark reflection in the reader, but always keeping my purpose in the foreground, which is to entertain. All literary genres, including romance, evolve with the times, of which they are a mirror and give us a postcard of them.”
You insert a “trigger warning”, a warning for the reader. How does this fit into the current debate on the threshold of susceptibility to “sensitive” content, even in a romantic comedy, and why did you decide to do it?
«In this case because despite being a romantic comedy, within it there are some denser, darker passages and therefore the TW can help readers orient themselves and not find themselves taken aback by certain passages, however few they may be».
Do you have an ideal reader you turn to, or does the relationship with your audience, which seems to be very intense, gradually redefine your way of writing? Is there a romance audience or a Felicia Kingsley audience?
«In reality, I can say with satisfaction that the audience of romance readers is expanding in every possible direction, even bypassing the old prejudice that romances are novels for (young) women. Yes, girls write to me, but also mature women and ladies in their third spring, men write to me, I receive photos of husbands who steal my books from their wives’ shelves or gentlemen who read me and then recommend my books to their wives. We are finally going in the only direction books should go, which is to unite.”
The public loves her, all the numbers and rankings say so, and soon her stories will also become TV films, one of the most loved and popular products of all. How does architect Serena Artioli deal with this, how does she experience it, how much is… Felicia?
«In reality it was all so gradual that Serena and Felicia didn’t suffer any shocks. They have always made room for each other according to one or the other’s needs and I believe they will continue to do so.”
