A BBC TWO BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICK

One relentlessly hot summer, six children explore the scorched wheat fields that enclose their tiny Italian village. When the gang find a dilapidated farmhouse, nine-year-old Michele Amitrano makes a discovery so momentous that he dare not tell a soul. It is a secret that will force Michele to question everything and everyone around him, and will bring his innocent world toppling down.

An unputdownable thriller, I'm Not Scared has become a contemporary classic in Italian literature, read and celebrated the world over.

"An exquisite parable" - * Daily Telegraph *

"A deft masterpiece with never a false note" - * Guardian *

"Ammaniti's prose is faultless from the first" - * Independent on Sunday *

"The new Italian word for talent is Ammaniti" - * The Times *

"Beneath this simplicity, Ammaniti weaves in the fairytale metaphors we know so well, giving the novel a haunting profundity" - * Sunday Herald *