I'm not Scared

This 200+ page book, written by Niccolo Ammaniti in 2001 and translated from the Italian by Jonathan Hunt in 2003, was made into a movie of the same name in 2004. Our narrator, 9-year old Michele, lives in a cluster of four poor houses in rural southern Italy that doesn't even qualify as a village. In the nearby mansion, owned by the local landowner and lawyer, lives Salvatore, Michele's best friend. The gang of local kids are pretty much on their own that summer in 1978 when a record setting heat wave drives all the adults to hibernate indoors during the day while the kids get up to whatever will hold the boredom at bay. As the book opens, they have ridden their bikes quite a ways from home and are now in a race, masterminded by 12-year old bully "Skull," to the top of a hill. When Michele's little sister falls and hurts her foot, he stops to help, knowing he will lose the race and pay the forfeit. This turns out to be a dare to enter a derelict farmhouse. In the process he discovers what he originally believes to be a dead boy lying in a hole dug behind the house. He tells no one, but must return to find out if the boy is really dead. He looks barely human now: naked, caked with dirt, wrapped in a filthy blanket and using a bucket for a toilet. Michele tries to tell his father about the boy, but is rebuffed by the father's concerns with the impending arrival of a wealthy visitor. The man arrives, the adults of the small village convene at Michele's house and argue late into the night. Eavesdropping on the arguments, Michele begins to confirm his earlier suspicions that someone in his family is involved in the boy's situation. From the TV, which Michele surreptitiously watches while the adults are glued to the news, we learn the boy has been kidnapped from wealthy parents up north who are desperately trying to put together the ransom money. As things progress, Michele tries to help the boy with food and water, then to escape, but he is too weak to walk and too terrified to leave the hole. When Michele hears the adults plan to kill the boy, he knows he has to get him away somehow. A brutal loss of innocence is at the heart of this thriller. The relationships between the children are painfully accurate. The descriptions of the Italian countryside, the heat, the kidnapped boy, and the adult treachery are exquisitely wrought. A review of the book by Michael Dibden, author of the Zen novels, was published in The Guardian.

Addendum: I rented this movie from Netflix (Italian with English subtitles) and it was very well-done...lovely cinematography and good acting. They followed the storyline pretty closely as well.