A Conversation with Paula Butturini -- in audio

Here's my favorite thing about Paula Butturini's new memoir "Keeping the Feast: One Couple's Story of Love, Food and Healing in Italy" (Riverhead): Even though the book is actually about coping with tragedy, mental illness, and relationships, its descriptions of food are so vivid that readers have started asking the author if she might release a companion book of recipes!

Butturini must be forgiven (is that the right word?) for describing food so beautifully in "Keeping the Feast." She is, after all, an accomplished journalist. So is her husband, John Tagliabue, and it was his gunshot wound in Romania that precipitated his first bout with major depression after their 1989 marriage. When his depression failed to lift, his (very wise) editor at the New York Times allowed Paula and John to spend a non-working stint in Rome, the city in which they'd met, fallen in love, and ultimately married. While John healed, with professional help, Paula shopped in the Campo dei Fiori market. 

In this interview, Butturini describes how she shopped, and why -- but she also gives glimpses into all of the rest of the reasons this book is a beautiful read. Both the Italian and American traditions of the Butturinis and Tagliabues are celebrated, making the story a rich and lasting blend -- much like the Butturini-Tagliabue marriage.