Probably not one to read in 2020 but more palatable when it was originally published, You will root for Anna. Thanks for the ArC,

A deadly virus has killed every adult in Italy and the world has irrevocably changed. There’s no electricity, no transport, no food. The cities are empty, the roads quiet. The world is run by children, who fight among themselves for survival, and feral dogs roam the countryside. The date? October 2020!

Reading Niccolò Ammaniti’s post-apocalyptic novel Anna right now was quite a freaky experience. When I found it lurking on my Kindle I had no idea about its contents. There was no blurb, I just knew that I liked the author’s work having previously read his novels I’m Not Scared (published in 2003) and Me and You (2012). So when I realised it was about a deadly pandemic I wondered what the universe was telling me! The whole book felt scarily prescient.

Set in Sicily, the story follows 13-year-old Anna, who lives on Mulberry Farm with her nine-year-old brother, Astor. The siblings have been living alone for four years following the death of their mother, Maria Grazia, from a flu-like virus.

The virus, which has killed every adult in the world, lies dormant in children, appearing only when they reach puberty.

"When you reach maturity, red blotches start to appear on your skin. Sometimes they appear straight away, sometimes it takes longer. When the virus grows in your body you start to cough, you find it hard to breathe, all your muscles ache, and scabs form in your nostrils and your hands. Then you die."

Much of the book’s plot centres on two kinds of jeopardy. The first is the threat posed by Anna and Astor wandering the now lawless land in search of food, where every stranger is a danger and wild dogs have the potential to eat them alive; the second is Anna’s countdown to puberty because as soon as she gets her first period it’s likely she’ll also develop the illness that will kill her.

It reads very much like a girls’ own adventure story as Anna leaves Mulberry Farm to not only look for supplies but to follow the instructions left by her mother: head for the mainland in case there are adult survivors living there.

Along the way she loses Astor, finds him again, meets up with other children, some of whom are violent and dangerous, others who are helpful and friendly, and chases a rumour that there’s an old lady living in a hotel who has a cure for the virus. She also finds a wild dog who becomes a loyal companion.

I can’t say I loved this book; I think I found it a little too close to the bone given the current covid-19 pandemic. But the writing is beautiful in places, the storytelling is masterful, the characters are well-drawn and the atmosphere is suitably dark and menacing. It’s a heartfelt portrait of sibling loyalty and ends on a hopeful note.

It isn't often that i read this genre, as i'm not a great lover of dystopian stories. I'm glad that i did eventually get around to reading this book, as much better than i had thought. Enjoyed.

My thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers for my copy. This is my honest review, voluntarily given.

Anna is Ammaniti's first book I read. His writing is smooth and interesting and I liked it a lot. I read Anna almost in one day but I will have to read another one of his own, to know whether I like him as a writer or not.

Anna begins with a thrilling chase, which lets us know that there has been a shift in normality, and that we are encountering a young girl who has a steely sense of inner calm.

It emerges that Sicilian society is being destroyed by a fatal virus that kills all except the pre-pubescent, a twist on the Old Testament. But Anna, approaching puberty, uses her remaining time to stay alive, protect brother Astor, and search for solutions.

Obvious comparisons are McCarthy’s The Road and Golding’s The Lord of the Flies, both compelling books. But Niccolo Ammaniti finds a distinct space, more internal and without the consistent brutal menace. Anna keeps her cool for most of the time, even when severely threatened. As in normal life, she finds that sometimes the glass is half-full. She has become inured to the death and decay and dead bodies, even that of her mother. Yet she still seeks a salvation and exhibits tenderness, even towards the very misnamed Fluffy, the dog who initially wanted to kill her.
Her journey toward the mainland, where she hopes the virus will not have spread, provides the context for her to confront some strange situations and fascinating characters.

The writing matches the mood of the book and can create mental pictures of some of the strange situations that arise.

A pleasure to read.

This story took awhile to really get good but once it did, it was gripping.

Lost a star from me for the ending, in that it didn't end...it stopped. I HATE stories that just stop. No explanation of the killer virus, no nothing.

Recommended for anyone who likes a good story and doesn't mind if it simply stops.

Everyone knows I love a good apocalypse fiction, and this is a marvellous, although bleak, rendering of a world where a mystery virus has wiped out all the adults, and children die soon after they reach puberty*.

The story focusses on Anna, a pre-pubescent girl living on Sicily 4 years after the outbreak. She steals food, collects water and tries her hardest to keep her younger brother alive and safe. When he is stolen by a gang of children hell bent on sacrificing the last adult alive, Anna risks everything to get him back.

There are no holds barred in this book. Ammaniti takes childhood and twists it into the hedonistic, terrible thing it would become without the social niceties adults press onto kids. Anna thrusting her hand into her vagina to check if she has her period is something I can well imagine happening with no one to say ‘that’s not nice to do in public’. Living amongst rodents and empty food containers, stealing clothing and getting drunk on scavenged grappa are artfully portrayed – this is not graceless writing, this is a careful examination of the breakdown of polite society. There are times when you will want to look away because the rawness of the characters is heartbreakingly real.

One thing I didn’t like was the use of drugs/alcohol/chaos to blur scenes – I can’t decide whether I just don’t understand all the subtext, or whether it’s lazy writing designed to hide a lack of plot movement. She’s drunk, she’s in a crowd where she can’t see, there’s explosion and suddenly – oh look, there are Pietro and Astor and everything is ok again (for a little while). I like stuff to be shown, or even told, rather than being ‘trusted’ to fill in the gaps myself. Damn brain doesn’t work like that!

It’s a well researched novel – what foods are still ok, what medicines would last, the general degradation of buildings and reclaiming by greenery is all fairly accurate. There are tragic scenes and joyous ones in a nice mix that keeps you hooked. The ending is bleak as fuck, but remember this is post-apocalypse fiction and Ammaniti is known for his darkness. The dog is a nice touch, I love Maremmas. It’s a nice afternoon read (it’s raining and windy here, so kinda fitting) at 275-odd pages and anyone who likes realistic end-of-the-world books with no holds barred will enjoy it.

****/5

*When I’m not so shellshocked, I’ll ponder the actual possibility of this.

Set in Sicily in the very near future (2020 to be precise) all adults have died from a virus and the surviving children know that when they reach puberty they too will get the virus and die. Thirteen-year-old Anna is left looking after her younger brother Astor, trying to cope in a hostile world, without adults, with diminishing food and medical stocks and, rather predictably, with gangs of often threatening fellow children. Anna decides that if she and Astor could reach the mainland then maybe there might be surviving adults there who could help her – although it doesn’t seem to dawn on her that if there were adults on the mainland they would have crossed to the rescue already. It’s an interesting enough plot and a reasonably convincing picture of a post-apocalyptic dystopian future inhabited only by children (hints of Lord of the Flies, inevitably) but overall I didn’t find much to enjoy here. The tension is well-maintained and the scenarios described vividly on the whole, but I didn’t feel it added anything particularly original to the genre. I’m certainly bemused by the Guardian review which calls it “a new standard in post-apocalyptic fiction” and states that it “brilliantly manipulates the usual models even as it transcends them.” I think not. In my view it’s a relatively enjoyable tale but not much more.

Niccolò Ammaniti is one of those writers who enjoy success with the reading public and general (if not unanimous) critical acclaim. One of the reasons for this must surely be that he brings a literary sensibility to popular genres, be it novels with a Mafia/"low-life" theme ( such as Io non ho paura and the Strega-winner Come Dio comanda) or the bittersweet coming-of-age stories such as Io e te. Ammaniti's engagement with pop culture and his ability to read and reflect the "signs of the times" is reflected by the fact that his books and stories have been made into movies by directors such as Salvatores and Bertolucci, and the title of Ti prendo e ti porto via was appropriated by cult Italian rocker Vasco Rossi for his hit single of the same name (belted out in Blasco's trademark half-spoken/shouted style).

In Anna, Ammaniti turns his sights onto the YA market and the dystopian/post-apocalyptic genre which seems to take up quite a chunk of new adult readership. He imagines a Sicily ravaged by a mysterious virus which wipes out adults, leaving only children as survivors. Until they reach puberty, because then the symptoms of the illness appear and they die as well. Further disasters (including uncontrolled fires and explosions) wreak havoc and break down all electronic means of communication. Unsure of the situation in the rest of the world (where, allegedly, a cure might have been found), and with adulthood fast approaching, the protagonist Anna sets out on a journey seeking survival for her and her younger brother Astor.

If I have a reservation about Ammaniti's latest novel, it is that it does not bring anything particularly new to the genre. We've come across "apocalypse by virus" before, not least in Shelley's proto-science-fiction novel The Last Man. There are also obvious parallels with The Road whilst the nature of the virus, dubbed "La Rossa", could be a tribute to Poe's Masque of the Red Death. As for children returning to a primitive, violent, cruel state, one could hardly better Lord of the Flies.

That said, nothing by Ammaniti should be written off. And Anna is, as most of his novels, engaging and, quite often, page-turning. The protagonist is an endearing character - strong and yet sensitive - bravely coming to terms with an oncoming adolescence which, for her, will mean almost certain death. This might not be a groundbreaking novel then, but certainly a well-crafted and gripping one, and several notches above the usual YA fare.

I generally prefer to read Italian novels in the original, but I really enjoyed the idiomatic, fluent translation by Jonathan Hunt for Canongate Books.

I have an interest in apocalyptic fiction so was interested to read this book. Told from the perspective of a teenage girl the story was readable but limited. The ending was so abrupt that I thought my Kindle had stopped working. As such it was a rather unsatisfying read.

The disease is called ‘la Rossa’ (the red one) due to the blotches that appear on the skin. There's no cure and a horrible death is the inevitable outcome once it strikes. And it’s been rampant, sweeping through Europe and killing everyone in its wake. Everyone, that is, except for pre-pubescent children. That’s the good news. That's the only good news. Once the child reaches puberty the dormant virus strikes and the same grisly fate awaits.

The year is 2020. Anna is thirteen and lives in Sicily with her younger brother. Her parents are dead – all adults are dead. Her mother had the forethought to write down some instructions before the pandemic reached her door: what to do with her body once she'd passed and, more importantly, some very practical schooling on what to do next. Her most fervent command being to ensure Anna stayed with her brother and found a way of getting to the mainland – maybe, just maybe, there'd be some adults left alive due to a cure having been found.

In time, Anna and her brother set out on their journey. Along the way they meet other children, all of them hungry and many of them unfriendly and even violent. It's a tough world out there. Many they come across have theories regarding how to cure the disease, each weirder and seemingly less likely than the last. Can they find a way to comply with their mother’s bidding and if so will it bear fruit? Who knows, but Anna is determined to give it a go.

Amanniti has written before about the plight of children: in Me and You and I’m not Scared, for instance, he showed how adept he is adept at tapping into the psyche the young and vulnerable. He pulls it off again here – very well indeed, in fact. There's more than a touch of The Road about this book though, grim as it is at times, it's not quite in the same league as McCarthy’s classic piece. There's also something of Lord of the Flies about it too, in the way we witness what a world might be like if it were to be run purely by children, many of whom have gone ferrel. It thought it compelling, thought provoking, sad, and yet also strangely uplifting. I liked it a lot and I hope many other readers take a close look at this book and also other output from this intriguingly gifted writer.

Wow. This is a story amazingly told and, as a confessed bibliophile, I honestly say I haven't read a book of this caliber in some time. The book seemed long at first but you could almost never tell what was going to happen next; I got sucked into the story and whenever I didn't have the book in my hand, I was worried about Anna. The prose is indicative of the writer's expansive lexicon and expertise in the craft and I must read more like this. I am totally satisfied with this reading experience.

There is nothing I enjoy quite as much as post-apocalyptic fiction. This book is a shining star of that genre. Two children, facing the end of the world, with no adults and nothing but their wits and instincts to help them survive? Highly recommended for anyone who loves this genre!

This kind of futuristic genre is generally not in my comfort zone and for the greater part of the book I was not quite there with the author on this one. This does not detract from the story line at all. A future that was very bleak where Anna as the elder sister was totally responsible for her younger sibling, foraging for medicines and food in a world that was so so hostile and predatory, took my breath away.

I was always on edge during the story, not knowing what fate would befall both children and the depth of responsibility Anna showed as a result of a death bed promise to her mother was amazing.

Goodreads and Amazon review up on 22/6/2017. Review on my blog mid October

Coming from me, 3 stars for sci-fi is pretty much a rave review. I don't like the genre (lurching from one violent scene to the next and the next, culminating in annihilation) but this was a quick read that I didn't hate, about nearly-nubile Anna and her little brother Astor, two Sicilian survivors in a post-apocalyptic world void of grownups, contaminated by a killer virus that lurks dormant until puberty.

Ammaniti does a great job providing detailed backstories for many of the minor characters involved. There's a sweetness amidst the putrescence to all the main characters, the third main character in this story is the Maremma dog. I found it hard to swallow that this dog was such a survivor, and there were also inconsistencies with other back plots, for example involving Pietro the love interest, the way his mother and aunts are described as asexuals and lesbians but then fall all over themselves in the presence of the sexy mechanic? But I think this was an excellent translation, I loved the Italian descriptions, even steeped in gore and putridity.

The writer captures the essence of what it is like to have fear as a child. Overall interesting story, captured my attention.
I enjoyed the writing style - although it was a translated novel, I felt it still translated well into english.

Set in a post-apocalyptic world in which a pandemic has eliminated all who reach the age of puberty, this delightful story relates the experiences of Anna and her brother Astor as they struggle to survive in this alien adult-less world. The setting is Sicily. Anna decides that they should strike out for Messina, the closest town to mainland Italy, in the hope that salvation may lie across the Strait on mainland Italy. Their journey is full of danger not least from packs of young mindless children. Fluffy, a vicious dog, befriends them and helps protect them from danger.
This is an unpretentious novel with a simple and realistic storyline. Survivors are scavengers: too young to learn the skills of harvesting nature. The bond which ties brother and sister is enduring and yet fragile as you would expect in a world where death awaits all those who attain puberty. Of course without the ability to expand the species mankind is ultimately doomed. The author explores the human psyche in such a situation and the conclusion is that only Adults who have possibly survived the virus hold any hope of saving Mankind. The novel ends on the high note of hope. This is a highly readable novel which explores the durability of relationships in a world without adults. The story is realistic and doesn't feature the Zombies who feature in most apocalyptic novels. Fluffy the dog is a real character himself.
This is the first novel I've read by the author but with his wonderful ability to relate a tale will not be the last.