VIAREGGIO RÈPACI AWARD 2023

After 8 years, the new awaited novel by Niccolò Ammaniti.

Maria Cristina Palma has a seemingly perfect life, she is beautiful, rich, famous, the world revolves around her. Then, one day, she receives a video on her cell phone that changes everything. There is a secret in her past that she has not come to terms with. Like a modern alienist Niccolò Ammaniti dissects a woman's mind, explores her fears, obsessions, and unmentionable desires in a novel that combines reckless fantasy, psychological realism, a sense of the tragic, and the enchantment of paradox.

«Nothing is better than a book for getting into someone’s head. So, one day, one word after the other, I entered Maria Cristina Palma’s mind and came out after a year with a new novel». 

Niccolò Ammaniti

«The Intimate Life brings Niccolò Ammaniti back to his origins, to his most successful books, but with something more, something new. In the ironic and often grotesque hues that make his writing unmistakable, he gives us a modern Portrait of a Lady, as painful as Henry James’s masterpiece and capable of making us laugh to the point of tears».

Paolo Repetti and Francesco Colombo, Einaudi Stile libero

«A truly original, surprising, mysterious novel that is as profound as it is entertaining».

Julia Eisele, Eisele Verlag

«Undeniably good, catchy, fast, funny and smooth».

Willemijn Peene, Lebowski Publishers

«The impact of the gaze of others on our behavior, the resulting loneliness, the staging of our lives, the hypocrisy of it all – so contemporary… And then in this sanitized world, back comes the body, the flesh, and of course desire».

Audrey Scarbel, Editions Grasset

«A novel that does not avoid difficulties and comes out victorious. Excellent pacing, evocations, and sense of disaster. How good Niccolò Ammaniti is at portraying these feelings that are so hard to capture».

Silvia Sesé, Editorial Anagrama

«What a novel! Fast and deep at the same time. Ammaniti manages to turn a psychological and personal story into a cultural and social analysis. An intelligent and sensitive book.»

Rosa Rey, Angel Editorial

Praise for La vita intima:

«Niccolò Ammaniti has written a magnificent novel, in which the animal past of our species is still active, the future announces itself to be increasingly improbable for us half-wits, and the present is worthy of being told precisely because of its unworthiness.»

Tiziano Scarpa, Domani

«La vita intima climbs gently over our hopes and dreams. And our fears as well.»

Antonella Lattanzi, Il Foglio

«In the happiness of being sad lies the strength of this novel that says much about the present and our frailties.»

Cristina Taglietti, Corriere della Sera

«Stunning autobiography of a nation that comes through the portrait of this woman who looks a little like everyone.»

Concita De Gregorio, la Repubblica

«Ammaniti, with his highly sensitive antennae to the spirit of the times, coins a beaming definition for a good chunk of humanity living on the planet in this era.»

Paolo Di Paolo, La Stampa

«I’ve been looking forward to this for such a long time and now it’s finally here! And what a novel: Ammaniti drags you into the depths of Maria Cristina Palma’s soul and the sorrows of the Italian rich, as only he can. A wonderful, fantastic, impossible to put down reading experience.»

Saskia Noort

«Ammaniti files our society masterfully in Het intieme leven: the failure of our politics, our obsession with appearances and the double life that social media forces us to live. That is tragic at times, but Ammaniti’s humor, which cuts us and is embalming at the same time, also spares and forgives us. He takes you on a journey through Italy with cinematic descriptions, from Tuscan farmlands to the Amalfi Coast and the Opera in Rome. But the humor is never far away – you’ll also be stuck in a chimney stack for half a chapter. It’s a beautiful journey with an instantly insufferable character who can’t help but seduce you.»

De Tijd

«Hilarious and so deliciously written down».

HUMO

Two booksellers from the Netherlands said:

“How wonderful is the latest Ammaniti! I had tears in my eyes from laughing. Another wonderfully vicious story.” Anthoni Fierloos, Paard van Troje & De Koperen Tuin bookstore

“A heart-warming and at times hilarious book about Maria Cristina, the wife of the Italian Prime Minister. I’m glad Ammaniti is back, and how! Within five pages Maria Cristina is your friend!” Olaf Tigchelaar, Bookstore Kramer & van Doorn