Niccolò Ammaniti

Niccolò Ammaniti (Rome, 1966), the outstanding Italian literary figure of his generation, is hailed by critics, has a vast readership, has received the country’s most prestigious literary awards (the Strega and Viareggio prizes) and has been translated into 44 languages. His first novel was Branchie! (Ediesse, 1994), after which, in 1996, he published the collection of short stories that appeared in Spanish with the title Fango (Mire – Mondadori). Three years later, his Ti prendo e ti porto via was published in Spanish by Mondadori and in English as I’ll Steal You Away (Canongate U.S., 2006). His big literary breakthrough came with the novel Io non ho paura (Einaudi, 2001 – published in English as I’m not Scared, Anchor, 2004). In 2006, his Come Dio comanda was published in Spanish by Mondadori and subsequently in English with the title As God Commands (Black Cat, first edition 2009). This book, with the previous novel, constitutes a tandem on father-son relations. His most recent work is Che la festa cominci (Einaudi, 2009), which is to be published in English by Canongate with the title Let the Party Begin. Four of his novels have been adapted into feature films.