Book Club Discussion Questions
Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!
About This Book
When Michele Amitrano stumbles onto a boy held prisoner in a hole deep in the Italian countryside, he begins a journey that will lead him to a series of startling discoveries.
I'm Not Scared explores the playful and volatile world of childhood through the eyes of nine-year-old Michele, who is forced, again and again, to make the hard choices that will define his character. As the book opens, he must choose between helping his younger sister or winning a race. Later, he must choose between letting his friend Barbara be humiliated or taking the punishment himself. And as the novel approaches its stunning climax, he must choose between obeying his father and fulfilling the oath he swore to him, or following his conscience and keeping his promise to Filippo, the boy who has been kidnapped. But the choices he makes bring him into serious danger, not from the monsters of his childish imagination but from the adults around him who are capable of violence and monstrosities that are all too real.
Written with an immediacy and poignancy which is itself evocative of childhood,
I'm Not Scared is a powerful tale of how one boy finds the courage to overcome his fear, risk his life, and make wrenchingly difficult moral choices.
Reading Guide - I'm Not Scared is preceded by an epigraph by Jack London: "That much he knew. He had fallen into darkness. And at the instant he knew, he ceased to know." Why has Niccolò Ammaniti chosen to begin his novel with this quote? How does it illuminate what happens in the story? What is the literal and symbolic significance, in terms of the novel, of falling into darkness?
- The novel opens with a scene in which Michele must choose between winning the race or helping his sister Maria. What conflicts and choices does this moment prefigure? What is revealed about Michele's character at this point?
- How does Ammaniti recreate the texture and atmosphere of childhood in his novel? What aspects of Michele's way of seeing himself and the world seem most authentically childlike?
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- How does the author develop themes of identity and belonging throughout the narrative?
- What role does the setting play in shaping the characters' decisions and relationships?
- Discuss how the ending reframes the events of the story. Were you surprised?
Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Anchor Books.
Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.
