Product Description

Timoteo: high-flying career as a surgeon, beautiful wife, luxurious apartment, villa by the sea - he seems the epitome of success and glamour. But then his daughter falls off her scooter and is rushed to the hospital in a coma. A colleague operates on her head injuries and, while the agonised Timoteo awaits the outcome, he holds the reader in the vice-like grip of his confession. For, beneath the veneer of his apparently charmed life, there is a story of squalor, degradation, deceit and strange passion. The story of a doomed love affair with a woman who, from the moment Timoteo meets her, undermines everything he thought he knew about himself. Mazzantini's chilling portrait of a supremely self-assured man losing control has taken readers by storm across the world. Highly atmospheric, subtly disturbing, it keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout. In the end, the suspense of wondering whether Timoteo's daughter will live is overtaken by the question of deciding just how much pity her guilty father deserves.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #214038 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Review
"'Enthralling, compelling and gripping' Mail on Sunday"

About the Author
Margaret Mazzantini was born in Dublin and now lives in Rome. She trained as an actress but left the stage to concentrate on writing. Don't Move is her second novel and won the prestigious Strega Prize. She has three children and is married to the actor Sergio Castelitto, who will star, alongside Penelope Cruz, in the forthcoming film of the book.

Customer Reviews

You won't move from this book.
A road accident in a rainy day in Rome. A father, head surgeon in the hospital where his daughter is being treated, releases hidden memories, hidden fears and guilts.
I received this book this Christmas (italian edition) and from the first page I was completely enchanted by the poetry released from simplicity and blunt, sudden truthfulness. I just couldn't lay the book down. A love, deep and intense, interwoven with cruelty and tenderness, courage and fear, lies and truths. A voyage in the mind of a man branded by a past he created with his own actions.
Since "Remains of the Day" I didn't read such an introspection, such a road to understanding oneself amongst the doubts of alternate paths. But this time the truth isn't slowly uncovered with gentleness, it's revealed with anger and sorrow.
A masterpiece, a book that cannot fail to play the strings of your feelings. It demands sensibility but gives you back unforgettable emotions.

A beautiful, passionate, disturbing, twisted love story
I wasn't sure about this book to begin with, and ploughed through the first couple of chapters with little enthusiasm, but I'm so glad I persisted. It's been a long time since I've read a book so beautiful. Despite it's subject being somewhat disturbing, beautiful really is the best word I can find to describe it. To try to put into words the emotions this book stirred in me is almost impossible to describe.
As the reader, you are consistently torn between feeling disgust, hatred and pity for the main character, as his confession of an affair with a weak and destitute woman forms the plot of this book. Whilst his daughter lies on an operating table fighting for her life, he tells the story of his relationship with Italia, a relationship which is in turn beautiful and harrowing.
I'm aware that it has been made into a film, which in this country seems to have received largely poor reviews (although the film is in Italian with English subtitles which could have something to do with it) but, having read it, I'm somewhat surprised that they chose to make the film. While the plot is gripping, it is by no means action packed, and whilst I admit to being someone who is easily bored by books that are character driven rather than plot driven, I simply couldn't put this book down. The author describes scenes of childbirth and death in a way that I have never experienced before - with such intimacy and emotion that could never be conveyed in a movie theatre.
I finished it yesterday, dreamt about it last night, and can't stop thinking about it this morning.

Disturbing but beautiful
I didn't know what to expect from this book, and admit to reading it purely because I want to see the film, and felt that I should read this first.
The opening chapters were gripping, and although I sat crying, I had to keep turning each page.
I found myself drawn to the character Italia, and Mazzantini describes her so perfectly that it is impossible not to feel her pain.
This is the kind of book that stays in your memory long after you have finished it, and leaves you feeling quite heavy with emotion.
Wouldn't recommend it as a light holiday read - more for a cosy winter's night, curled up by the fire.