About the Author

Alessandro Baricco was born in Turin in 1958. He is the author of thirteen novels, as well as a number of essay and short story collections, a modern rendition of The Iliad and a theatrical monologue. He has won the Prix Medicis Etranger in France and the Selezione Campiello, Viareggio and Palazzo al Bosco prizes in Italy.

Reviews

Highly romantic and breathtakingly lyrical
* * New York Times Book Review * *

Compelling, profound and sharply funny
* * Observer * *

Baricco has produced a beguilingly unusual beach book
* * The Times * *

Baricco has produced a work of miraculously spun sugar, at which many people will gasp in admiration
* * Spectator * *

This is a novel driven by the pleasure of narrative. Unburdened by a single perspective, the writing is ethereal
* * Telegraph * *

Baricco is an exemplary storyteller . . . [he] shows a Bertolucci-like, chair-hopping, gesticulating sense of sheer joy, that turns this tragic tale into a bittersweet tragi-comedy
* * Time Out * *

Extraordinary
* * Independent * *