- Paperback: 405 pages
- Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd (1 Jun 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1841957747
- ISBN-13: 978-1841957746
- Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15.4 x 3.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 387,235 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Steal You Away
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
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.
About the Author
NICCOLO AMMANITI was born in Rome in 1966. At thirty-four, he was the youngest ever winner of the prestigious Viareggio-Repaci prize. I'll Steal You Away is his second novel; Canongate also publishes the highly acclaimed I'm Not Scared, which was published in twenty languages, and made into a hugely successful film. JONATHAN HUNT was born in Portsmouth in 1951. He has taught at the universities of Munich, Cambridge and Turin, and has worked as a literary translator for several years. He currently holds a research post at Turin University and divides his time between Italy and Britain.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A witty exploration of human foibles!,
By
This review is from: Steal You Away (Paperback)
I was not sure how I was going to get on with this book when I first started it, but actually it really starts to draw you in. It does not deal with the gloss or veneer of life, but with real life with all its hopes and disappointments. It deals with the choices we make and the consequences those choices have on the course of life. It deals with injustice and unfairness and how these things do not always have happy endings like in many books. In other words it deals with real life but in a very colourful way due to the skill of the writing. There are some truly amusing laugh out loud moments, and the author really knows how to look at and write about the little idiosyncrasies of the characters and how to look at their shortcomings and poke fun at them but in such a way that we can identify with them because we are all human and all of us can see little glimpses of ourselves or others that we know amongst the characters. We are all human and we all make mistakes. We are all capable of good and bad and the lines can sometimes be blurred. Fortunately, one must hope not to some of the degrees in this book. It is a sort of tragic comedy written on a very human level.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An extraordinary tale of the intertwining lives of a dead end town...........,
By Steve (London) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Steal You Away (Paperback)
Forgive the longwinded title.
I really enjoyed this. I did enjoy I'm not Scared (his first novel) and there is a flavour of that novel that is shared with this, but this book has an altogether broader scope. If you can picture it, a small town in Italy, too far from the coast, and too near the main road to Rome. Who ends up there? Well exactly! This book plots the lives of a handfull of it's inhabitants, giving just enough history of most of the characters for them to have enough substance and reality, some more than others. Along the way, there is a lot of despair, some hope, and some black humour. It's sharp, smart, and a bit dark, but not without some tenderness and the odd heartfelt moment, and it gathers momentum towards for me, an unexpected climax. I like it.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Colourful picture of criminals in small town Italy,
By Feanor (London, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Steal You Away (Paperback)
This very funny book is set in Ischiano Scalo, a dusty corner of Tuscany criss-crossed by motorways that serve to remind the villagers that life, really, is elsewhere. Its heroes are a middle-aged Lothario, Graziano Biglia, who, after decades of seduction and alcoholism, decide to retire to married life with a young wannabe actress; and the sensitive and artistic Pietro Moroni, the son of an abusive father and a beaten-down mother, who tends to be the fall-guy for the local bullies in their nefarious schemes. There are other colourful characters, all of whom plot complicated intertwining plans for advancement or profit, with increasingly hilarious ramifications, but at the climax, the laughter ceases and the tragedy of gratuitous murder leads to a disturbing conclusion.
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