Me and You
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3.8 • 8 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
The bestselling author of I'm Not Scared "elegizes adolescence fiercely and sympathetically" in a novel that's "scary, lovely and at last a heartbreaker" (Kirkus Reviews).
Lorenzo Cuni is a fourteen-year-old loner. His wealthy parents think he is away on a school skiing trip, but in fact he has stowed away in a forgotten cellar. For a week he plans to live in perfect isolation, keeping the adult world at bay. Then a visit from his estranged half-sister, Olivia, changes everything.
Evoking the fierce intensity and the pulse-quickening creepiness of I'm Not Scared, Ammaniti's bestselling first novel, Me and You is a breathtaking tale of alienation, acceptance, and wanting to be loved by "a fearsomely gifted writer" (The Independent).
"Immensely engaging . . . Both tender and emotionally arresting, Ammaniti's novel is unforgettable." —Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Italian author Niccolò Ammaniti does a lot in 160 pages, including surprise, humor, and frighten you—sometimes simultaneously." —Daily Candy
"Ammaniti's prose is nimble, perceptive and economical . . . There's a lot to love about this book—its reticent empathy, its delicate and pragmatic treatment of addiction, its remarkable use of restricted physical space." —Full Stop
"Me and You takes a short time to read but offers a memorable experience in a mutual recognition of loneliness and grief." —Curled Up With a Good Book
"Me And You, at just over one hundred pages . . . [is a] perfect book . . . Niccolò Ammaniti disgusts me for how talented he is . . . He has written a masterpiece." —Antonio D'Orrico, Corriere della Sera
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Already a bestseller in Italy, Ammaniti's slim but immensely engaging fourth novel presents Lorenzo Cuni, a precocious 14-year-old desperate for some space of his own. He achieves this respite from reality with "Operation Bunker," an elaborate ruse whereby his parents believe he is skiing in the Italian Alps, when actually he has secluded himself in the basement of the family's apartment building. Settling in among dust, sheets, and other items of a "Fifties household amassed in a cellar," Lorenzo surveys the food and video games he's stockpiled and hunkers down for a glorious week of self-induced solitary confinement. Lorenzo describes his childhood as a friendless existence, much befitting the diminutive outcast that he's become, and as narrative sympathy swells, Ammaniti expertly ratchets up the suspense with a rare appearance by half-sister Olivia, 23. Feigning homelessness and a mysterious illness, she joins him in an emotional reunion that soon morphs into a bittersweet, heartbreaking alliance. Both tender and emotionally arresting, Ammaniti's novel is unforgettable.
