by Niccolo Ammaniti (Author), Jonathan Hunt (Translator)
Back Jacket
One sweltering summer, in a forgotten corner of Italy, two very different lives collide.
Pietro is eleven years old. His father is alcoholic, his mother mentally disturbed, and he dreams of running away. But before he can leave, a weary traveller arrives in town. This aging Casanova has a penchant for young women and flamenco. Life in Ischiano Scalo will never be the same again . . .
'Ammaniti is not only a master storyteller but has a very nice line in sly humour as well . . . Forget Lucca, Siena and Cortona. You'd be crazy not to visit Ischiano Scalo.'
Michael Dibdin, Guardian
'Exuberant and audacious.'
Observer
'You're a long way from tourist Italy with these lowlifes and deadbeats . . . their stories converge to a devastating climax, one that is entirely unexpected.'
Independent on Sunday
Author Biography
Niccolò Ammaniti was born in Rome in 1966. He is the author of six novels translated into English and two short story collections. Several of his novels have been adapted for film, including Steal You Away, which was longlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, The Crossroads, winner of the Premio Strega Prize 2007, and the international bestseller I'm Not Scared, which won the prestigious Italian Viareggio-Repaci Prize for Fiction and has been translated into thirty-five languages. He lives in Rome, Italy.