Niccolò Ammaniti

I’m Not Scared by Niccolo Ammaniti is a coming of age story, a suspense-thriller and a tale of shattered innocence. I was drawn into this story immediately by first the setting, the hot dry summer of 1978 rural Italy, and then the story of a group of children wandering the countryside on a hot afternoon who discover a deserted farmhouse. One of these children, nine year old Michele, uncovers a secret so immense, it is beyond his immediate comprehension.

The author has captured the actions show more and thoughts of a child who has stumbled into a dangerous adult situation that he doesn’t understand. Throughout the book, the child’s confusion, his not being able to separate the fantasy from the truth, keeps the reader on edge. As the boy learns more about the situation and how the adults around him react, he realizes that he can longer ignore the facts and he needs to act immediately placing himself in extreme danger.

I’m Not Scared had all the elements that I enjoy in a book. The story unfolds at a fast pace and builds to an exciting climax. Although a short book, the author supplies some beautiful descriptions and the story never felt particularly rushed. His portrayal of a nine year old’s inner thoughts felt absolutely authentic, and reading of innocence lost with no expectation of redemption made this a very dark read that I devoured as well as introducing me to an author that I fully intend to read more of. show less

Niccolò Ammaniti è un genio, non ci sono altre parole per definirlo. Un genio del noir pulp, ti tiene incollato al libro e non ti molla. Le descrizioni sono talmente reali che hai una immedesimazione incredibile. Alcuni personaggi sono davvero sgradevoli, è vero, ma molto reali. A mio parere più di tutti la professoressa. Una capacità incredibile di scrivere e di descrivere personaggi. La storia di torbido amore (e sesso) descritta qui credo sia la migliore che abbia mai letto, e la show more più memorabile show less

The post-apocalyptic novel—always a compelling and popular subgenre—has gained traction in recent years as the movie industry cashes in with depictions of dystopian realms where everything has gone wrong. Niccolò Ammaniti’s 2015 novel Anna (published in English translation in 2017) presents a disturbingly prescient story of a sister and brother navigating the perils of a world ravaged by a virus that has killed everyone over age fourteen, and which will claim their lives too once they show more pass through puberty and experience hormonal changes that render them vulnerable to the scourge. As the novel begins, it’s been four years since the Red Virus emerged. Widespread looting and destructive wildfires have scorched urban and rural landscapes. Electricity and running water are distant memories. All remnants of civil society have crumbled. On the island of Sicily, Anna Salemi, 13, and her younger brother Astor are living on their own in the family home on Mulberry Farm. Having exhausted the food left behind by their parents, they are surviving on the spoils of Anna’s forays into nearby dwellings and deserted shops, where she scavenges whatever is available, mostly tinned milk and vegetables, and packaged sweets. But their relatively placid way of life is rudely and violently interrupted when, while Anna is out foraging, a band of marauding children invades the homestead, vandalizes the place and abducts Astor. Anna’s search for her brother forces her to abandon her comfort zone and venture into the untamed countryside, where chaos reigns and anything can happen. Along the way she picks up a couple of allies: a boy named Pietro—slightly older than Anna, Pietro believes a specific style of Adidas sneakers will make him immune to the virus—and a huge shaggy sheepdog she names Fluffy. After a grotesquely apocalyptic scene in which she rescues Astor from a bizarre cult that has enslaved him, the four venture north and find refuge in the port of Cefalú before making their way east to Messina, where Anna has decided they must cross the Strait to the mainland, chasing rumours of a cure. Along with the highly visual and detailed prose, what distinguishes Ammaniti’s novel is the persuasively rendered psychology of his cast of juvenile characters. Astor acts like a boy on vacation—he’s young enough to have little memory of life before the virus, so for him all of this is “normal.” Anna and Pietro, in full knowledge of the dangers they face and the certainty they will die in agony in their mid-teens, find time for frivolity. In Anna’s wrecked world cruelty abounds, life is cheap, and death’s leavings are part of the scenery. The novel may be bleak and violent, but it offers hope every time we see how tenaciously Anna clings to her meagre existence and truncated future. In Anna, Niccolò Ammaniti offers an engaging analysis of human behaviour in a time of anarchy. Not for the faint of heart. show less

Nine-year-old Michele Amitrano and his friends have little to do one very hot summer besides explore the Italian countryside around them. When the leader of their little gang, Skull, forces Michele to go off on his own in an abandoned house after a forfeit, he makes a discovery that is destined to change his perception of his friends, family, and life itself.

The outside of this book promised that it would be scary, but it wasn’t at all in the way that I’d expected, and to be honest I show more vastly preferred what I got to what I expected. Rather than a scary book in superficial ways, this is a book about human nature, about a boy discovering what adults can do to other little boys just like him. Michele’s loss of his childhood innocence is totally heartbreaking, but riveting. I can understand why this book kept others up all night to find out what happens next. I myself read it in just one day. It’s a very absorbing read.

This is also a beautifully written book. I don’t know whether to give credit to the author or the translator, but I could feel the heat of that Italian summer, see the wheat fields and the abandoned farmhouse, just as I could see inside Michele’s realistically wrought child mind. Michele is almost unbelievably genuine, which of course only adds to the emotional impact of the book, especially the ending. He watches as the people he trusted turn out to be fallible, which everyone realizes eventually, but hardly in this way. And of course it isn’t only the adults he’s already wary of, but those he loves and trusts.

From the adults’ perspective, I think the novel shows the desperation people have to make their lives better. Apparently crimes of this type (I’m being vague, but I think it’s worth not knowing) are still commonplace, and that only makes it all sadder. They want to move to northern Italy, which is richer, but it seems they’ll do almost anything to achieve it. I was left wondering if it was worth the sacrifice, and perhaps glad that at least one of the adults may have finally realized the amount of harm he was doing.

I would definitely recommend I’m Not Scared to anyone with an interest in thoughtful thrillers. It’s a gripping read with strong emotional impact that will leave you considering what happened for days afterwards. I’m looking forward to my next book by Ammaniti.

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