This intelligent and deeply disturbing first novel bravely confronts a subject that many shy away from -- the sexuality of children. A cause of great controversy when first published in Italy, it will leave no reader indifferent.

Like lan McEwan's The Cement Garden, or William Golding's Lord of the Flies, it creates an intense, claustrophobic world where grown-ups are shadowy, absent figures and children play out their own shocking versions of adulthood. Written in a controlled, spare yet beautiful prose, it is surprising in its maturity and insight and marks Simona Vinci out as one of Europe's most interesting young writers.