Io e te

"Io e te" is Niccolò Ammaniti's latest novel. It is set in Rome in the year 2000. Fourteen-year-old Lorenzo is not, as his parents believe, on a ski holiday in Cortina d'Ampezzo with his classmates; instead, he has hidden himself in the basement of his parents' house, in a storage room that he has made comfortable with food supplies, reading materials, and technical toys. Soon, he must share his underground kingdom with his drug-addicted half-sister Olivia. In the end, he will emerge from his cave, but the attempt to free Olivia from her addiction ends tragically. This short novel, which explores the theme of growing up, is excellent for Italian language classes. It is an unabridged and unedited text edition in the original language, with translations of difficult words at the bottom of each page, as well as a postscript and literary references.