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Book Summary and Reviews of Me and You by Niccolo Ammaniti

Me and You by Niccolo Ammaniti

Me and You

by Niccolo Ammaniti

  • Critics' Consensus (2):
  • Published:
  • Jan 2012, 192 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

From internationally best-selling author Niccolò Ammaniti, comes a funny, tragic, gut-punch of a novel, charting how an unlikely alliance between two outsiders blows open one family's secrets.

Lorenzo Cumi is a fourteen-year-old misfit. To quell the anxiety of his concerned, socially conscious parents, he tells them he's been invited on an exclusive ski vacation with the popular kids. On the morning of the trip, Lorenzo demands that his mother drop him off before they arrive at the train station, insisting that his status will be compromised if he shows up accompanied by his mother. Reluctantly, she agrees, and as soon as she is safely out of the vicinity, he turns around and makes his way back to his neighborhood, to put his real plan in motion: for one blessed week, Lorenzo will retreat to a forgotten cellar in his family's apartment building, where he will live in perfect isolation, keeping the adult world at bay.

But when his estranged half-sister, Olivia, shows up in the cellar unexpectedly, his idyll is shattered, and the two become locked in a battle of wills - forced to confront the very demons they are each struggling to escape.

Paperback original

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. Both tender and emotionally arresting, Ammaniti's novel is unforgettable." - Publishers Weekly

"[Niccolo Ammaniti] elegizes adolescence fiercely and sympathetically. His 14-year-old hero, Lorenzo Cumi, is a great character, part Young Werther, part Kurt Cobain... [Me and You] is scary, lovely and at last a heartbreaker." - Kirkus Reviews

"A [#1] best seller in Italy, and - here's the rub - Bernardo Bertolucci is directing the film version." - Library Journal

This information about Me and You was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Niccolo Ammaniti Author Biography

Niccolò Ammaniti was born in Rome in 1966. He is the author of three novels, as well as a collection of short stories. At thirty-four, he was the youngest ever winner of the prestigious Viareggio-Repaci prize for I'm Not Scared which has been translated into twenty languages and was made into a movie.

His books have inspired 5 films, and in 2014 he directed his first documentary, The Good Life.

Link to Niccolo Ammaniti's Website

Name Pronunciation
Niccolo Ammaniti: ni-CO-lo ama-NEE-tee

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