Niccolò Ammaniti: Q & A

[Stewart]

Italian author, Niccolò Ammaniti, will be answering your questions on World Literature Forum on Wednesday 14th January, 2009 at 20:00 GMT. To take part please read the Guidelines and should you have a question for Niccolò, please post it to the Questions For... thread.

About Niccolò Ammaniti

Niccolò Ammaniti was born in Rome 1966. He has written three novels and a collection of short stories. His first novel, Steal You Away, was longlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. he won the prestigious italian Viareggio-Repaci Prize for Fiction with his bestselling novel I'm Not Scared, which has been translated into forty languages and became a prize-winning film. in 2007 his third novel, The Crossroads, received the Premio Strega Prize, Italy's equivalent of the Booker.

[Niccolo]

Originally Posted by Mirabell

Preliminary: does he speak English?

If yes, does he like his translation? What does he think of it? Is he satisfied with the way his style is rendered?

Mirabell,

Yes I do speak some English, although it's not perfect, but I read in English too. I was very happy with the translation - Jonathan Hunt has translated my other books too, and I am always very happy with how he does it.

[Niccolo]

Originally Posted by rburdock

First of all I want to congratulate Niccolò on an exceptional novel. The cover blurb labels it as being 'utterly absorbing' and I've got to agree with that wholeheartedly.

My question is as follows:

The Crossroads undoubtedly rates as one of the most shocking novels I've read to date, both in terms of its sexual content and the level of violence, and the 'shock factor' is certainly more intense than anything found in your previous, and also exceptional novel I'm Not Scared. I was just wondering if this 'writing for shock', in the same vein as say Chuck Palahniuk, is the direction you are taking your writing now, or if the level of sexual content and violence found in The Crossroads was more of a 'one off'?

Thanks again for a wonderful novel and continued success.
Rob

Thank you Rob. The next novel is not shocking like The Crossroads, because it's a comedy - I hope it will be funny. But in general if the story needs a shock, I will do it no problem. I don't mind shocking my readers!

[Niccolo]

Originally Posted by Anna van Gelderen

Near the ending (at the bottom of page 402) Cristiano suddenly realizes what he has been doing and is filled with compassion and remorse. I interpreted this as the author still seeing hope for him, that there is still a chance that he may turn out alright, because basically he is a good kid. Is this interpretation correct or is my view too rosy?

Anna, you are right. Cristiano is a good guy. It is something that will help him grow to be a better man. It is very important that at the end of the book he has the intuition that his father is not guilty.

[Niccolo]

Originally Posted by LizzySiddal

Niccolo, I'd like to ask you that question as well. But I'd also like to know why you felt the change of direction necessary.

Also did the filming of I'm Not Scared change your writing in any way? Have scenes been inserted or elongated with one eye on a possible adaptation? I certainly felt during the murder scene that you were writing with a directorly eye.

Hi Lizzy,

I hope I answered your question when I replied to Rob.

No, it didn't change my writing in any way. I tried to always use Cristiano's point of view when writing, and the director of the film adaptation did the same thing; the camera is always at the boy's eyeline. I do see the scenes in my mind as I write them, but I don't know if that's the same thing as seeing with a directorly eye.

[Niccolo]

Originally Posted by kpjayan

Hi Niccolo,

Few questions..

1. There are four deaths described in this novel and I found you have made some deliberate (as witnessed by themselves) detailing of each of them, any reasons ?

2. GOD is seen as a passive presence through out the novel. Either as a witness or as one responsible (some one to be blamed) or as a rescuer , while the characters exhibit a non-religious outlook. Is that intentional ?

3. Ants as a metaphor (?) is an interesting one. Why ants ,any significance ?

4. Your book is now available to a larger international readers. Does that change your writing ? Do you need to make any adjustment considering the mass of readers who are non-Italians ?

Thank you...

Kpjayan,

Many questions! Thanks.

1. I have a passion for details, and with the murder scenes I wanted the reader to feel like they were there - like they were a witness. If the scenes are very gory, and the reader gets all the details, this will make them feel it more.

2. Yes, it's intentional. For the characters, God is not like the Christian god but is someone who has to give back what life has taken. But they want these things now, and not in another life.

3. Honestly, I don't know! I was looking for an image of what you might feel when your body can't move but your brain is still active. The image of ants seemed to match that.

4. No, not at all.

[Niccolo]

Originally Posted by Aiculik

Hello

first I want to say that I really liked the book, I liked how characters seem like "real people" and how it is not possible to say easily if they are "good" or "bad" and each of them has something you can like about them and something you can hate about them. Really - I never thought I would be able to sympatise with drunk Nazi who hates Slavs.

This is your third book I've read - I'll Steal You Away, I'm Not Scared and now Crossroads. In all three books, one of the main characters is pre-adolescent boy who has to deal with dark and violent world and who feels that everyone betrayed and abandoned him. (And in many cases they are right, or at least it seems so to me.)

So what I want to ask is - why? Why boys? Why preadolescent age? Why do they have to live trough all that violence?

Especially Crossroads is full of all kinds of violence, really shocking, as someone said. Does that mean that this is what we can perhaps expect in your new novels, that you will focus more to violence and pain and reactions to it (and shock readers with it) than on preadolescent boys?

Thank you - I'm happy that you like my book. My goal was to have a very bad person, but one that you couldn't say was all bad. I think it is very important for a writer to use psychology, and to have characters that you can not say are all good or all bad. The aim was to talk about a Nazi who could teach his son hate, but with a lot of love.

I think the adolescence is the most important period of anyone's life. You change in your body and in your mind, and you change very quickly. You start to have a different view of your parents. This makes adolescents the perfect protagonist for a story - they can be very sweet and full of hate, very intelligent but also very impulsive.

And I hope I answered your final question in an earlier question!

[Niccolo]

Originally Posted by Ramblingsid

One thing that strikes me is that the world these characters inhabit is pretty dystopian - a harsh, comfortless place. How realistic do you think that is? Or is it a device, just a backdrop for the extreme events of the novel?

So far I do not appear to have come across a character that I would think of as a particularly good role model. Does such a person exist in your novels? Does such a person exist in the real world? Your characters here are interesting because they are not exactly good or bad (Rino wants to be a good father but his idea of one strikes me as slightly horrifying) and I wonder whether these characters are too hapless to be able to manage to achieve anything - good or bad.

I am surprised that I smile while reading this book though - and quite a lot. I particularly enjoy the flashes of quiet humour. And the characters themselves behave in a way that is pretty farcical it seems to me. Is that deliberate? On the basis that farce is pretty close to tragedy? The humour heightens as well as leavens the tragedy?

Sid,

I am glad you are enjoying the book so far.

The names are not real, but the places exist. Some parts of the Italian countryside are like this. All the farmhouses and fields are abandoned, and instead there are just shopping centres. The young people used to meet in the parking lots of these malls, or in the malls themselves when it became too cold.

I don't know if any of my characters are good role models - probably not. They are a mix of good and bad. I'm sure there are people who are good, but that's one of the interesting things about human psychology. People are often a lot better on their own in private than they are in public!

I like it when humour is mixed with tragedy, and when the reader starts to laugh but realises quickly that there's maybe not actually anything to laugh about. I'm glad you see that!

[Niccolo]

Originally Posted by LizzySiddal

Would you say that The Crossroads is a typical Premio Strega winner? If not, why not?

Why the deliberate hommage to Coetzee's "Disgrace" on the dust jacket?

Who are the authors you admire the most and why?

Which other Italian authors are must-reads (and have they been translated into English?)

What are you reading at the moment?

Hello again Lizzy,

No, I would not say that it is typical. Fortunately the prize has changed a lot in the last few years though, and now a very different kind of book wins it. It is now very difficult to say what kind of book is a typical Premio Strega winner.

With the cover, I do not actually know - you may need to ask my publisher that.

I change my favourite authors like I change what kind of pizza is my favourite! One of my favourites is Jack London - he's like the Margherita - universal.

I do not know exactly which Italian writers have been translated into English, but I am sure that Tomasi di Lampedusa with Jeopardy is translated. It is a very important book about Italy and it is very well written.

I am reading Entering Hades, by John Leake, but I have only just started it so I don't know yet if it will be a good read!

[Niccolo]

Originally Posted by Stewart

During the translation process, do you have much contact with the translator or do your prefer to leave them to it?

Also, if there is something in the published Italian edition that you later dislike or want to change, do you take the opportunity to rectify this in the translation?

Stewart,

I do not often speak to the translator during the process - normally only if they do not know a slang word or something. And I would never change the book after it's been printed in Italian.

[Niccolo]

Originally Posted by Ramblingsid

Which authors, if any, inspired you to begin writing?

Which authors would you say have influenced your own work?

George Orwell once wrote an essay entitled "Why I write" - how would you answer that question?

Hello again Sid,

In general a writer was something very far from my life; it seemed such a big and important thing, and I was just a reader. But then I read American Psycho and it was different - it felt like a book I wished I had written myself. And it was with feeling that I started to write short stories.

With the next question...probably the first person that influenced my work was Stephen King, because it was impossible for me to stop reading his book and I began to find the secret behind writing a book so good that it was like eating a very good sandwich for 5 hours!

Why I write I think is too hard a question - I can say only that it is the easiest job because you need only paper and a pen.

[Niccolo]

Originally Posted by canongatebooks

Here is a related question:

The theme of ‘the sins of the father’ seems very strong in this book. Do you think we are suffering a crisis of masculinity in the twenty-first century? Or have you just chosen troubled characters because they make for a better story?

You may be right about a crisis of masculinity, but there is I think too much to say about it here. I just choose troubled characters because they are better to write about and make a better book!

[Niccolo]

Originally Posted by LizzySiddal

I can see that in relation to I'm Not Scared. But I think my question may have confused. The scenes in The Crossroads are very long and very precise in relation to scenery, position and action. I wondered if you were setting it up for a future filming. I think you're telling me no but I just wanted to clarify my question.

No, I wasn't. I like to be very precise and have a strong relationship with the place and the movement of the characters. Probably it is for this reason that directors like my books!

[Niccolo]

Originally Posted by canongatebooks

Here's another related question: Could you give us a hint as to what your next novel is about?

It will be a story about a very long party in Rome with a lot of characters. It will be a comedy, but for more than that you must wait and see!

[Niccolo]

Originally Posted by rburdock

Hi Niccolò,
I consider it a honour for you to grace us with some of your valuable time. You've already answered my ' sex and violence' question (thanks for that) but I also wanted to ask you about the fascinating 'clown icongraphy' used in the interactions with Danilo. Is this an image that exists in real life? and can you briefly explain why you used this, rather than say an effigy of the Virgin Mary?

Rob,

This is one of my favourite parts of the book. In general in Italy, they sell awful pictures with a lot of clowns - I do not know why! I started with this image, and imagined it in a huge landscape with a sad clown; it seemed to link to Danilo's feeling at the time about his wife. At the same time it was funny though, which I also liked. The picture does not exist though obviously.

[Niccolo]

Originally Posted by kpjayan

Hi Niccolo..

some more..

1. The parental teaching of the kid is a bit different here. Old "survival technique" ( be on your own) has come in place, over morality and social responsibility. Could you explain ....

2. When comes to the relation with women, all of them (including the boy) finds it difficult to carry on. One reason for the murder could be the inability to carry as he perceived watching those movies.

3. The name "the crossroads" is a change from the original given title in Italian, why changed?

1. It comes from fear - they want to preserve the few things that they have, and the only way they know how to do this is through violence. It's like a dog who has his food, and when you try to give him more food he tries to attack you.

2. Quattro Formaggi is like a child, but has the desires of a normal man. This mix can create a pervert. So you are maybe right.

3. The name was changed because in Italian "as god commands" is a phrase used often - it means "if things go well", but is not actually that religious. In English it does not mean that. We chose The Crossroads in English because it has the meaning of a decision to be made, as well as talking about the roads which cross the countryside.

[Niccolo]

Originally Posted by canongatebooks

How did you get the idea for the bank job? Was it based on something you'd actually heard or read about, or was it something you imagined?

Yes, it happens sometimes in Italy - people try to steal the cash machine using a tractor. I like this kind of robbery very much!

[Niccolo]

Originally Posted by Stewart

I've noticed that each of your novels is told in a different tense and/or perspective. Does it keep the storytelling fresh to try different approaches, or do these methods just choose themselves in the process of writing?

When I write I feel like a god moving my characters, and putting them in a very bad situation. When they are these situations I ask myself what they can do. This is one of the reasons why I write books - but sometimes I see them moving by themselves.

In general I use the same point of view used in The Crossroads. Only in I'm Not Scared is it from the point of view of the protagonist.

[Niccolo]

Originally Posted by titania7

Hello, Niccolo!

Cristiano did not have exemplary role models in his growing-up years, with his father, and his father's friends, the slow Quattro Formaggi and the grieving Danilo. About the only person with any sense of normalcy was his social worker, Beppe Trecca, and he was experiencing his fair share of challenges. In light of this, what kind of future do you anticipate, as the author, for Cristiano? Have you given any thought to a sequel? I really enjoyed the book. In fact, once I started it, I found it difficult to put down. You are indeed a highly gifted writer!

Best wishes,
Titania

No plans for a sequel I am afraid, but I think because of the events in The Crossroads Cristiano will be a much better person. I am glad you enjoyed it.

[Niccolo]

Originally Posted by canongatebooks

I definitely felt very conflicted about Rino, because he seemed to love his son very much but yet was such a cruel man.

Would you say you are commenting about Berlusconi's Italy in particular (this reviewer seems to think so), or are you holding a mirror up to modern society in general - the agonies of adolescence, the realisation as you get older that adults are not always right, and maybe even the failure of society as a whole?

I think it is modern society in general, but in Italy we have a very big problem because of the way that Berlusconi looks at politics in Italy and society in general.