Black September

'A precisely rendered coming-of-age story. Vivid, touching and immensely enjoyable' DAVID SZALAY, AUTHOR OF FLESH 'A gorgeous coming-of-age story set on the Tuscan coast . . . It's hard not to bask in the white heat' THE TIMES 'The multi-award-winning Italian writer turns memory into drama in this warm, teasing account of an early-1970s adolescence... With its full-flavour rendering of the emotions of adolescence, Black September manages the tricky achievement of being a story of happiness and sadness at the same time, each enhancing - and each as convincing as - the other' FINANCIAL TIMES 'As I read Black September, I kept thinking of Fellini's great film, Amarcord - the young boy's world, the eccentricity, the colour, the brilliance. It's a gem of a novel; I loved it' RODDY DOYLE, AUTHOR OF PADDY CLARKE HA HA HA Summer, 1972. At his family's summer house in Versilia, Tuscany, twelve-year-old Gigio Bellandi's life is changing: caught on the cusp of adolescence, he finds the familiar places and people newly strange and intoxicating. As he discovers the adult thrills of music and reading, Gigio begins to learn who he is and to see his family without the veils of childhood. And when Astel Raimondi enters his orbit - a girl who kindles dreams and feelings he could never have imagined - his young existence is changed forever. But every new chapter is also an ending, though it is harder to recognise at the time. And as an unexpected storm starts to threaten the golden days of summer, Gigio's world will be overturned. Reconstructing that lost season with vivid intensity, Black September is an unforgettable coming-of-age novel about the fragility of innocence, the irreversible bloom of first love and the strange wonder of self-discovery, from one of European literature's greatest storytellers. 'A perfect novel . . .