La Solitudine dei Numeri Primi - Paolo Giordano

  

It all depends on how one approaches the book, I guess. 

Do you read it as the first work of an aspring young writer? In that case, it's full of promise, does an extremely good job of portraying aspects of the deep sorrows of the teenage years, and it is the kind of effortless read that deserves to be rewarded. 

Do you read it as one of the best books published in Italy? In that case you can't help but feel sorry for the state of Italian literature, wondering how on earth something so raw, with such a poor conclusion, and that focuses on feelings that the author (at 26) might not have experienced/understood can be received with such widespread acclaim.

Io e Te – Niccolò Ammaniti

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.