Friday 11 July 2008


TITLE: I’M NOT SCARED

AUTHOR: Niccolo Ammaniti

DATE PUBLISHED: 2003

DATE READ: July 2008

NOTES: Lovely story of a childhood in southern Italy. A poor boy, Michele, living in a tiny hamlet finds a boy chained in a hole in the ground. He copes with the discovery by telling himself fairy stories. There is a gradual loss of innocence as he realises his own parents and other villagers are implicated in the kidnapping of this little boy.

The summer heat, the golden wheatfields and the poverty are all brilliantly described. This is a short book, beautifully crafted with not a superfluous word.

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