'A novel of crime and darkness that eschews straightforward domestic noir' Guardian
'Move over Ferrante, there's a new Elena in town' Independent
'There is much beauty and sadness in this slim novel' The Times
'Utterly gripped me from beginning to end' Victoria Hislop
In the August of 1978, the summer I met Anna Trabuio, my father took a girl into the woods...
I was sixteen.
He had been gone a long time already, but that was it - not even a year after he lost his job and that boy disappeared - that was when everything broke.
1978.
Ponte, a small community in Northern Italy. An unbearably hot summer like many others. Elia Furenti is sixteen, living an unremarkable life of moderate unhappiness, until the day the beautiful, damaged Anna returns to Ponte and firmly propels Elia to the edge of adulthood.
But then everything starts to unravel.
Elia's father, Ettore, is let go from his job and loses himself in the darkest corners of his mind. A young boy is murdered. And a girl climbs into a van and vanishes in the deep, dark woods...
THE TIMES BESTSELLER | WINNER OF AN ENGLISH PEN AWARD | SHORTLISTED FOR THE TA FIRST TRANSLATION PRIZE | LONGLISTED FOR THE CWA INTERNATIONAL DAGGER AWARD
Genre: Mystery
'Move over Ferrante, there's a new Elena in town' Independent
'There is much beauty and sadness in this slim novel' The Times
'Utterly gripped me from beginning to end' Victoria Hislop
In the August of 1978, the summer I met Anna Trabuio, my father took a girl into the woods...
I was sixteen.
He had been gone a long time already, but that was it - not even a year after he lost his job and that boy disappeared - that was when everything broke.
1978.
Ponte, a small community in Northern Italy. An unbearably hot summer like many others. Elia Furenti is sixteen, living an unremarkable life of moderate unhappiness, until the day the beautiful, damaged Anna returns to Ponte and firmly propels Elia to the edge of adulthood.
But then everything starts to unravel.
Elia's father, Ettore, is let go from his job and loses himself in the darkest corners of his mind. A young boy is murdered. And a girl climbs into a van and vanishes in the deep, dark woods...
THE TIMES BESTSELLER | WINNER OF AN ENGLISH PEN AWARD | SHORTLISTED FOR THE TA FIRST TRANSLATION PRIZE | LONGLISTED FOR THE CWA INTERNATIONAL DAGGER AWARD
Genre: Mystery
Praise for this book
"One of the best Italian novels of 2016. A book that doesn't shy away from pain - it shines a light on it. And it does so beautifully, page by page." - Alessandro Baricco
"Readers will devour this novel in one sitting as I did, then chew over it long after the book is done." - Karen Dionne
"A beautiful, stark, poignant account of fear, love and loss." - Emma Flint
"Can you hear me? shines a light on one family's black heart, a place where opposites coexist: tenderness and fear; happiness and pain; unfaltering faith and ugly suspicions. A book to get lost in." - Paolo Giordano
"There won't be another novel this rich, this compelling, this extraordinarily satisfying for a long, long time." - Bret Anthony Johnston
"Readers will devour this novel in one sitting as I did, then chew over it long after the book is done." - Karen Dionne
"A beautiful, stark, poignant account of fear, love and loss." - Emma Flint
"Can you hear me? shines a light on one family's black heart, a place where opposites coexist: tenderness and fear; happiness and pain; unfaltering faith and ugly suspicions. A book to get lost in." - Paolo Giordano
"There won't be another novel this rich, this compelling, this extraordinarily satisfying for a long, long time." - Bret Anthony Johnston
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