Me And You - Tapa dura

Exuberant and audacious. * * Observer * * The new Italian word for talent is Ammaniti. * * The Times * * A fearsomely gifted writer. * * Independent * * A master storyteller. * * Guardian * * The story of a young boy who's heading towards adulthood. This book amazed me' -- Bernardo Bertolucci Near perfect [...] this small gem of storytelling has the balance just about right. * * Scotland on Sunday * * An original, thought-provoking and well-written piece of fiction... Ammaniti takes us on a remarkable voyage through the fear of future responsibility which awaits young people on the brink of adulthood and laces it with all the irony, self-criticism and self-indulgence familiar to that age-group. This is a powerful novel, which asks us to consider the relationships we have with our own siblings and the memories of our own adolescence -- Emilia Ippolito * * The Independent * * Ammaniti's matter-of-fact, unadorned prose captures Lorenzo's angst-ridden, incomprehending world-view with a confident clarity, and as resolution back in the present day beckons, he plots the course of their filial relationship with a deft, understated skill -- Bram E Gieben * * The Skinny * * Me and You is a slim volume which takes only a couple of hours to read. But thanks to the skilfully presented Lorenzo and the poignant reconciliation of the boy with his half-sister, it lingers in the memory for much, much longer -- Alastair Mabbott * * The Herald * *

EVERYBODY NEEDS SOMEBODY, SOMETIMES . . . Lorenzo Cuni is a fourteen-year-old loner. His wealthy parents think he is away on a school skiiing trip, but in fact he has stowed away in a forgotten cellar. He plans to live in perfect isolation, for a week, keeping the adult world at bay. Then a visit from his estranged half-sister, Olivia, changes everything.