Biography and Reviews
Niccolò Ammaniti
I’m Not Scared (Text Publishing)Niccolò Ammaniti was born in Rome in 1966. He studied at Liceo Classico and then enrolled at university where he studied biology. He gave up studying just before completing the degree. To make a bit of cash he bred fish, then sold them to pet shops. In his room he had 12 acquariums, containing a total of 2,000 litres of water.
His failure at university (and in fish-breeding) were the main themes underlying his first novel Branchie. Branchie tells the story of Marco Donati, a seller of fish who has cancer and a hysterical girlfriend. Marco goes to India to fight Morton Subotnick, a surgeon from Turkmenistan who transplants organs into rich Westerners and who lives in a castle at the base of the Himalayas. A film was made based on this novel.
Further success came a year later with the publication of Fango, a collection of stories of varying styles (noir, horror, comedy) about the city of Rome. A film, starring Monica Bellucci and entitled 'L'ultimo capodanno dell'umanità', was made based on the first story.
Ammaniti then spent six months in Scotland where he wrote the great rural novel he had been thinking about for years, Ti prendo e ti porto via. In 1996 he published a short story anthology Gioventù cannibale.
In 2001 he went to the United States to write a script for an American production 'Gone Bad'—a sentimental splatter comedy in digital animation, about a group of zombies in a Nevada Village.
His novel Io non ho paura (I'm Not Scared) was published in Italy in 2001. Publication rights have been bought in the UK, USA, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Holland, Sweden, Portugal, Brasil, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, Iceland, Finland, Poland, Hungary, Serbia, Catalan, Israel, Turkey and Greece, as well as Australia. This book has been Ammaniti's biggest success so far. I'm Not Scared has been on the best-seller list in Italy since its release in April 2001 and has won many literary awards. In fact, at thirty four Niccolò Ammaniti is the youngest-ever author to win the prestigious Viareggio-Rèpaci prize.
A film based on the novel I'm Not Scared has been made, directed by Gabriele Salvatores, the Academy-award winning director of Mediterraneo. It premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2003, and is alreadfy a smash hit in Italy.
Niccolò Ammaniti lives in Italy. He speaks fluent English.
He will visit Australia as a guest of the Sydney Writers Festival in May this year.
I’m Not Scared
Niccolò Ammaniti
Winner of the prestigious 2001 Viareggio-Repaci Prize for Fiction
‘Niccolò Ammaniti is the best novelist of his generation.’ Il Giornale, Italy
‘one of the most admired figures on the Italian fiction scene.’ ABC, Spain
‘…moving, impressive, amazing. It reminds you of Italo Calvino, but a Calvino warmed by a humanity that is not afraid to roll around in the mud.’ Panorama, Italy
‘Ammaniti is a born story-teller.’ L’Unita, Italy
‘A tense, breathless book, written with self-confidence and vitality.’ La Stampa, Italy
‘Confirms his extraordinary narrative talent, over which he superimposes an
atmosphere of horror and marvel.’ Le Monde, France
I'm Not Scared is an international best-seller that has already sold into 20 languages.
It’s a compelling and utterly absorbing read that reinforces Ammaniti’s status as a major literary talent.
It’s the hottest summer of the twentieth century. A tiny community of five houses in the middle of wheat fields. While the adults shelter indoors, six children venture out on their bikes across the scorched, deserted countryside.
In the midst of that sea of golden wheat, nine-year-old Michele Amitrano discovers a secret so momentous, so terrible, that he dare not tell anyone about it. To come to terms with what he finds, he will have to draw strength from his own imagination and sense of humanity.
The reader witnesses a dual story: the one that is seen through Michele’s eyes, and the tragedy involving the adults of this isolated hamlet. The result is an immensely powerful, lyrical and skilfully narrated novel, reminiscent of Stephen King’s Stand By Me.
Niccolò Ammaniti will be a guest at this year’s Sydney Writers Festival (22-25 May) followed by his tour to Adelaide for The Big Book Club .
Praise for Niccolò Ammaniti’s I’m Not Scared
‘The new Italian word for talent is Ammaniti.’ The Times
‘In this profoundly moral fable of lost innocence and adult cruelty, children are isolated and adrift in a world of guns and blackmail. Ammaniti’s sparse prose creates a truly evil tension, and his caustic intelligence would be impressive in a writer twice his age. I’m not Scared sucks you in like ‘The Blair Witch Project’. I could not put in down.’ The Observer
‘Nothing beats a good story and Niccolò Ammaniti is one of the best storytellers around... This is a breathlessly atmospheric story of a boy's heroism when he discovers that those closest to him are not what they seem. Utterly compulsive.’ Sleazenation
‘Italy is the theme for the month’s literary hits.’ Vogue
‘I’m Not Scared reads like To Kill A Mockingbird, reworked by Miike “Audition” Takashi. Ammaniti opens Pandora’s box on a boy’s innocence, whilst delivering all the imaginative delight of childhood between the poison shots.’ Dazed and Confused
‘I’m Not Scared is an exquisite parable. Ammaniti’s short staccato sentences effectively describe the isolation and simplicity of rural subsistence, while long passages of direct dialogue touchingly portray the children’s naïve perceptions’. Daily Telegraph
‘The characters, particularly that of Michele, spring to life and the story builds to a heart-stopping, climax. Readers will find this accomplished work hard to put down and even harder to forge.’ Publishers Weekly
‘Beneath this simplicity, Ammaniti weaves in the fairytale metaphors we know so well, giving the novel a haunting profundity.’ The Sunday Herald
‘Haunting passages and subtle snippets of Italian life make I’m Not Scared a highly effective look at how our ideas and perceptions as children are dictated by the ‘reality’ our parents and other adults shape for us.’ Bookpage (US)
‘The extraordinary strength of this narrative lies in its simplicity. This is a physical and moral world seen through the eyes of a child… The boy’s journey is not towards any realisation of faith, but to the knowledge that there is a not final authority and the only moral values are human ones.’ New Humanist
‘The writing of Niccolò Ammaniti, a much lauded Italian author, is several notches above that of Rowling, Tolkien, Pullman et al, and he spares us the elves and the sorcery.’ Sunday Telegraph
‘This is the year’s first honest to God gem. Spoil yourself.’ Bookmunch
‘Ammaniti’s prose is faultless from the first… The brevity of his sentences, the clarity ad perfection of each image, gives his novel some of the flavour of a child’s picture book.’ Independent on Sunday
‘Italian author Niccolò Ammaniti has an incredible talent for conveying the thoughts and fantasies and fears of a nine-year-old boy… The truth, though, plays on all our childhood fears of abandonment more than Michele’s imaginings an even begin to.’ Big Issue
‘This is one of those books where, after a couple of paragraphs you know that you’re in safe hands, and after a couple of pages you’re lost. Don’t start it on the way home from work unless the train terminates at your station… His account of the squabbles, contests, loyalties, betrayals, fallings-out and makings-up between the children is a deft masterpiece with never a false note.’ Michael Dibden, The Guardian
‘I’m Not Scared is a simple, enthralling and horribly persuasive story, kept stark and uncluttered. It deftly hints at injustices and divisions, and betrayals of every kind, from the puerile to the world-shattering. Yet nothing labours in its narration... My bet is you’ll read this, as I did, in one sitting. Make a pot of coffee, take the phone off the hook, and let I’m Not Scared scare the pants off you. You’ll be rewarded with the most impeccably judged last two pages of any recent writing. Then raise your cup in thanks for new and promising voices, and higher still for those who bring them to us.’ The Herald
‘There is much to admire. Heat and the oppression of the days are sharply conveyed. The novel is good on the shape of the world of a child: a world defined by climbing, burrowing, hiding and finding hidden things. The dialogues between the pathetically brave kidnapped child and the gently courteous son of his kidnapper are remarkable inventions, poetic in effect.’ Scotland on Sunday
‘Ammaniti’s depiction of his adult characters’ combination of family loyalty and indifference to those outside the clan recalls Scott’s treatment of the Highlanders in Waverly and, especially, Rob Roy. This is how people behave at a certain stage of civilization. The scene in which the conspirators discuss what’s to be done with the boy is a s tremendous and horrifying as that in which Rob Roy’s wife disposes of the traitor Morris.’ The Scotsman
‘The tone is reminiscent of the best literary thriller writers and of one British author in particular. Niccolo Ammaniti: the Italian McEwan.’ Big Issue in the North
‘Kidnapping and organised crime are miserable realities in Italy even today and they have been the basis of thousands of thrillers, but Ammaniti’s novel is altogether more engrossing and wider in scope. His narrative, a series of short, snappy paragraphs and even briefer, biting sentences, moves with the pace of a crime novel, but the adventure takes place in the mind of a growing boy as well as in the place where he lives. Some of the set-pieces, especially the climactic search and chase at night over fields inhabited by creatures of real and imagined terror, are a tour de force of adventure writing. Niccolò Ammaniti, who as published novels and short stories in Italy and seen them translated in Spain and France, is a writer of vigorous imagination and moral subtlety, Jonathan Hunt’s translation is fluent and forceful.’ Joseph Farrell, Times Literary Supplement
‘A combination of elegant prose, striking descriptions; and gripping narrative puts this amongst the great modern novels.’ What’s On In London
‘His pacing and story telling are compelling, and you’ll struggle to put this short novel down before the end.’ Highland News
‘A superb examination of perspective.’ Buzz
‘His depiction of a fallen world, in which childhood’s golden gates are slammed shut with a terrifying finality, strikes a plangent emotional chord.’ Sunday Times
‘I’m Not Scared is a beautifully written novel exploring the bittersweet adventures of childhood.’ The Resident
‘The confusing world of adulthood is dazzlingly portrayed in prose so crisp and evocative you can see the heat-haze rising from the arid wheatfields.’ Good Book Guide
‘Ammaniti has succeeded where many other writers have failed in capturing a child’s voice and viewpoint with absolute precision. Some merit should also go to Jonathan Hunt’s flawless translation but it’s easy to see why Ammaniti has been hailed as the best novelist of his generation.’ Attitude Magazine
US Press
‘Reading I’m Not Scared is an exciting and provocative experience.’ New York Times
‘Ammaniti has distinguished himself as the most talented of his peers.’ New York Times
‘This book is breathless, and surprising, to the last word.’ Baltimore Sun
‘What a beautiful novel it is.’ Bookslut
‘I’m Not Scared is a spellbinding novel, a searing portrait of childhood and a boy’s struggle to accept the terrible truth.’ Florida Sun-Sentinel
‘Considered one of Italy’s best young novelists today, Ammaniti deftly handles an incredible plot twist that, in another’s hands, would amount to nothing more than a potboiler.’ LA Times
‘The characters, particularly that of Michele, spring to life, and the story builds to a heart-stopping climax. Readers will find this accomplished work hard to put down and even harder to forget.’ Publishers Weekly
‘[Ammaniti’s] style…harks back to the sharp, evocative prose of Giuseppe di Lampedusa or Leonardo Sciascia.’ Washington Post
‘…Ammaniti enclosed a suspense story as gripping as any Hitchcock classic.’
Washington Post