Le otto montagne

by Paolo Cognetti • 2016

'Could Cognetti be the new Elena Ferrante?’ Bookseller The international sensation that spent a year on the Italian bestseller list about two young boys who meet in the mountains every summer, and the men they grow up to become ‘ENCHANTING’ Guardian ‘BRILLIANT’ New York Times ‘ABSORBING’ Irish Times Pietro, a lonely city boy, spends his summers in a secluded valley in the Alps. There, surrounded by meadows and peaks, he begins to learn of his father’s dreams and passions. There, too, he meets Bruno, the son of a local stonemason. As the pair run wild, they form a once-in-a-lifetime friendship. Then one year, the summer visits stop. Pietro is drawn to cities around the world. But the memory of the mountains never leaves him and, after his father dies, he returns in search of the freedom and camaraderie that he once knew. ‘Exquisite... A rich, achingly painful story’ ANNIE PROULX Winner of the 2017 Strega Prize, the Strega Giovani Prize and the Prix Médicis étranger