Book Review: I’m Not Scared by Niccolo Ammaniti
by Carmen Nge


Over the years, I have managed to wean myself off fiction. Perhaps it’s because I’ve read too many novels and works of literature to speak of and got tired of dawdling through meanderingly beautiful prose that took me months to finish. Occasionally, though, a book comes along that threatens to destabilize my recent stance. Niccolo Ammaniti’s I’m Not Scared is such a book; it is also proof that novels can be every bit as agile, gripping and visually crafted as any film. (Of course, it comes as no surprise that Ammaniti’s novel has since been made into a movie by Italian director, Gabriele Salvatores)

Originally written in Italian (and translated by Jonathan Hunt), I’m Not Scared is like a frenetic bike ride along the lip of a ravine, at full speed and with worn-out brake pads. As early as the first 20 pages into the novel, we are already careening precariously out of control, caught in the maelstrom of a young boy’s pre-pubescent world-view, where adventure, adrenalin and imagination are the touchstones of what it means to be alive.

Nine-year old Michele Amitrano is Ammaniti’s earnest and courageous protagonist—an Italian boy growing up in Acqua Traverse, “a place forgotten by God and man.” With its five houses and a pot-holed road running through its middle, this “country hamlet” is the epitome of rustic simplicity. But its golden, undulating wheat fields deceive with their sweet-smelling bounty.

In the hottest summer of the century, Michele literally stumbles onto a secret that rips him out the cocoon of childhood into a reality that he is unable to fully grasp. He becomes enmeshed in a crime that forces him to re-evaluate his friends, his family and a world of class inequality and economic disparity—where prosperity and happiness come at the expense of someone else’s suffering and pain. It is impossible for me to reveal much more than this, for the book’s ability to suck you in hinges on a secret that unravels as quickly as a biker’s mountain descent, yet sustains its narrative stamina throughout the rest of the gruelling, scorching journey. Niccolo Ammaniti’s book is one you will want to read in one sitting because its adroitly constructed narrative arc is so beguilingly hypnotic.

Ammaniti’s gift is also his economical prose: his ability to visualize a scene and to paint it with remarkable candour and clarity by using layered, uneven brush strokes. His story about Michele’s surprising summer is a child’s tale, told by an adult whose sensitivity, perception and thoughtfulness are still vigorously youthful. Furthermore, I’m Not Scared concludes with an ending that is as complex, unexpected and satisfyingly open-ended as the life of a blossoming adolescent.

Niccolo Ammaniti has been hailed as a bright new star in fiction’s firmament. I’m Not Scared is why.

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