Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #155441 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 405 pages

Customer Reviews

An extraordinary tale of the intertwining lives of a dead end town...........
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.

Loved this book
This has been my favourite book so far this year, I loved it. It's funny, tender, touching. It's a lovely Italian story, an easy read that will stay with me for a long, long time. I'm recommending it to friends and family and will even lend it to anyone who promises to give it back! I love books that make me laugh or cry. It's a marvelous story. Congratulations Niccolo. I'll definitely read it again one day.

A witty exploration of human foibles!
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.