The Crossroads - Softcover

Ammaniti has cranked up the volume for his blistering new novel. * * Independent * * Every scene contains a twist. * * Guardian * * Brutal but effective. * * The Times * * Energy and danger spray off it like water from a choppy sea . . . Very hard to put down. * * Daily Mail * * One of Italy's brightest literary stars . . . Combines tense horror with the blackest comedy. * * Observer * * Ammaniti fills his scenes with such rich detail, humour and surprise that it is impossible not to be drawn in . . . A forceful portrait of contemporary Italy, providing a long overdue counterbalance to the romantic, tourism-drive portraits of the country. And yet, for all the harshness of his world, warmth bubbles up between the cracks. * * Financial Times * * Offers an artful interstiching of plots and cinematic, horror-dazed images, and Jonathan Hunt's translation is exemplary. * * Observer * * Undeniably gripping . . . Indeed, this is in a surprising way a love story. * * Scotsman * * A compulsively readable tragedy with a bleakly comic underbelly, as if the Kray twins' gang had been infiltrated by a couple of Marx brothers. * * Sunday Herald * * The Crossroads is a rollicking dark horror-comic, a gruelling piece of fun. * * Independent * *

Cristiano is thirteen. Home life is far from perfect. When his father and two friends come up with a plan to rob a bank, Cristiano sees the chance of a better life. As a tremendous storm brews that night, Cristiano will have to put childhood behind him once and for all, and the perfect crime will have shocking consequences.