Io non ho paura by Niccolò Ammaniti (2001) [review]

A review of "Io non ho paura" (I'm Not Scared) by Niccolò Ammaniti published by Einaudi 2001. ISBN 88-06-14210-0 (Italian), ISBN 1 877008 46 X (English). In the torrid summer of 1978, while the grown-ups take refuge indoors behind drawn blinds, the first-person narrator, nine-year-old Michele Amitrano, is trudging about through the drought-stricken wheatfields in the stifling heat, keeping an eye on his five-year-old sister, Maria, while simultaneously fending off the bullish threats of gang-leader, il Teschio (“Skull”). Michele, now adult, recalls a harrowing episode from a childhood summer twenty-two years earlier.