'One of Italy's brightest literary stars' Observer
It is some years since a virus killed all the adults. Now Sicily lies in ruins while the disease lies in wait, poised to claim the children as they reach adolescence.
Brave, stubborn thirteen-year-old Anna looks after her brother Astor in the cottage where their mother's skeleton rests, lovingly decorated, in a locked bedroom. She tells him fearsome stories about monsters, hoping to keep him safe at home while she forages among the real hazards. Wild dogs. Gangs of savage, blue-painted kids.
But then Astor starts to question Anna's version of the world, just as the blue kids are turning their attention to the cottage—and suddenly, everything will change.
Niccolò Ammaniti was born in Rome in 1966. He has written two collections of short stories and six novels, four of which have been translated into English. He was the youngest ever winner of the Italian Viareggio…
