In swampy Ischiano Scalo, where the adults are all losers and the children dream of escape, meek little Pietro is tested to destruction by the school psychopath, and is betrayed by his parents, his favourite teacher and, in his most self-fulfilling act, himself. As Pietro struggles against the bullies and revels in his friendship with Gloria (the prettiest and richest girl for miles), his lonely teacher, Flora, devotes herself to her catatonic mother, until Ischiano's one glamorous son returns to seduce and forget her. In the painful aftermath, Pietro's attempts to escape his own crushing sense of failure lead him to destroy everything he holds dear in one futile moment of hurt and anger. Through the eyes of a desperate boy and a self-aggrandising small-town Don Juan, Ammaniti gradually reveals his cast of grotesques, from idiot policemen to self-obsessed would-be starlets, terrified headmasters to lustful janitors. With charm and irony, he exposes the grand dreams and sad realities of these ordinary people living extraordinarily ordinary lives.**

zlib/no-category/Niccolo Ammaniti & Jonathan Hunt [Ammaniti, Niccolo & Hunt, Jonathan]/Steal You Away_17717115.epub

Ammaniti, Niccolò; Hunt, Jonathan

Niccolò Ammaniti; Jonathan Hunt

United Kingdom and Ireland, United Kingdom

Canongate Books Ltd, Edinburgh, 2009

Edinburgh, New York State, 2009

La Vergne, 2010

Edinburgh, 2007

Main, 2009

lg_fict_id_1463896

Ischiano Scalo. A place where even the main road out to the nearest big town gives up after a couple of miles, where escape from a life of boredom and emptiness is almost impossible. Forced into crimes he never wanted to commit, Pietro reaches crisis point when his parents ignore his pleas for help and his schoolteacher turns her back on him - in desperation, he reaches out for attention, and finds instead a terrible revenge. Escape from Ischiano Scalo comes at a price. Life there will never be the same again.

2021-10-24