As an engagement present I got my wife an
autographed copy of the book (I had met the author at the same literary festival
already mentioned a bunch of times). Then I also got her a ring, otherwise she
would have been upset.
The book (little more than a short story) much
like Calvino’s Il Barone Rampante starts
from an improbable premise that is, however, the dream of many children
(Lorenzo doesn’t do what his parents think/want him to do, and hides in the
basement for a week instead of going skiing with supposed friends). The novel
is sweet, surely because Ammaniti refrains from being gory for once, and the
treatment of the detox process of the other – unexpected – guest in the
basement as seen from the eyes of a child is character-building without being
patronizing like in Grossman’s Someone to
Run With.
A great novel for a (short) train ride. Not
much more than that, but still quite an enjoyable read.
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