Ischiano Scalo. A place where even the main road out to the nearest big town gives up after a couple of miles, where escape from a life of boredom and emptiness is almost impossible. Forced into crimes he never wanted to commit, Pietro reaches crisis point when his parents ignore his pleas for help and his schoolteacher turns her back on him - in desperation, he reaches out for attention, and finds instead a terrible revenge.

Escape from Ischiano Scalo comes at a price. Life there will never be the same again.

"Another powerful story about the loss of childhood innocence in small-town Italy from Rome-born author Ammaniti - who wrote the highly acclaimed I'm Not Scared." - * Financial Times *

"Niccolò Ammaniti's second novel, Steal You Away, published in Italy in 1999, is also about a boy faced with difficult moral choices that will define his future. It traces the path to Ammaniti's follow-up, I'm Not Scared, the global bestseller that became a hit film in 2003. In the end, we get two heart-wrenching love stories for the price of one. This young storyteller exercises the confidence, honesty and sensibility of a master without spilling a drop of sweat." - * The Times *

"Again Ammaniti uncovers the tragedy in ordinary people's lives - the awful gap between dream and reality - and skewers it to the page with such elegance that you cannot tear yourself away from the inexorable trajectory of ruin." - * The Big Issue *