Cafe Tempest, by Barbara Bonfigli

My Review

If you like your stories so rich in detail that you feel as if you are actually there, then Cafe Tempest might be just the book for you. From the very first page, you will be immersed in details of life on a little island off the Greek coast and the richness of the descriptions continue to unfold throughout. Written with the flavor of a memoir, Cafe Tempest tells the story of Sarah, an American vacationing once again on an island she has come to love like a second home. But what she thought was to be a simple vacation, during which she would work on a troublesome article, becomes so much more when she is asked to direct a play for the island locals.

When she says yes, her life is turned upside-down as literally every island denizen tries their hand at acting. Unfortunately for Sarah, they start vying for parts even before she starts auditioning for them, or even picks the play! She can’t even go into the butcher shop for food or the post office to send a letter without being accosted by someone with designs for starring in the play. But the real drama begins when she chooses the play – and faces the daunting task of filling the parts with the island hopefuls. As the title of the book eludes to, the chosen play is Shakespeare’s The Tempest. But if you want to know about the significance of the rest of the title, you will have to read the book.

To learn about Barbara Bonfigli and Café Tempest, feel free to visit any of these sites.

Barbara Bonfigli’s website – www.cafetempest.comOrder Café Tempest directly from the publisher – http://www.tellmepress.com/pub_ct.php or from Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Café-Tempest-Adventures-Small-Island/dp/0981645313
To see the complete tour schedule visit http://virtualblogtour.blogspot.com/2009/05/cafe-tempest-by-barbara-bonfigli-summer.html

About Barbara Bonfigli

Barbara is an author, lyricist and theatrical producer. When she isn’t writing songs or travel articles, or producing shows, she packs some French roast and catches a plane to Athens. Then a ferry or a hydrofoil to… but that’s classified.

She hitchhiked to Greece in her first nomadic summer, and discovered her native land. She’s been exploring it ever since — hiking in the Pelion, kayaking in the Dodecanese, sailing the Aegean. In a tiny seaside taverna, over fried kalamari and a pitcher of homemade red, a few Greek families and she watched Obama conquer Berlin.

Maps are her recreational drug of choice. After wearing out five passports and four continents she uncorked her memories and imagination — and a bottle or two of retsina — to write her first novel, “Café Tempest: Adventures on a Small Greek Island”. It’s a kind of “A Year in Provence” meets “Zorba the Greek”. You are invited to the mythical island of Pharos, to laugh and dance in the hammock, not the cradle of Western civilization.

About Café Tempest: Adventures on a Small Greek Island

What is it about Greece that makes it so exotic, so romantic, so tantalizing that it’s right at the top of everybody’s bucket list – the one foreign land they’re longing to visit? Our dreams are made on Never on Sunday, Zorba the Greek, and more recently My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Mama Mia.

Café Tempest: Adventures on a Small Greek Island is a witty, evocative, beautifully written novel that puts you right in the heart of Greek island life. It’s so alive with the sights and smells and tastes and characters of Greece that you can pick it up and start your Mediterranean vacation on page one. On a deeper level, the book is filled with the kinds of observations, reflections, and arc of self-discovery that make Eat, Pray, Love so compelling.

“Welcome to Pharos. Laugh and dance in the hammock—not the cradle—of Western civilization,” says author, lyricist, and theatrical producer Barbara Bonfigli. “I’ve been falling in love with Greece since I was old enough to drink retsina. But if Sarah hadn’t captured my imagination you’d never know how I feel about friendship, feta, and the abundance of grace that turns friends into lovers and fishermen into kings.”

Synopsis

When Sarah, a thirty-something American theatrical producer, is asked to direct the locals in their summer show, she picks Shakespeare’s play The Tempest. What follows is a hilarious adventure in casting, rehearsing, and consuming. Her neighbors are excited about acting but delirious about eating. Their rehearsals in a deconsecrated church become a feast in four acts.
Armed with a sizzling wit, a dangerously limited Greek vocabulary, and a pitch-perfect ear for drama, Sarah navigates the major egos and minor storms of a cab driver Caliban, a postmaster Prospero, and a host of fishermen dukes and knaves.

When she falls in love, there are even trickier seas to navigate. Her own offstage romance provides an exhilarating, unpredictable counterpoint to Shakespeare’s story of magic, intrigue, and the power of love.