Synopsis"A master of political satire infused with a dose of the fantastical."-World Literature Today Stefano Benni's enormously popular and distinctive mix of the absurd and the satiri-cal has made him one of Italy's most important and best-loved novelists. This is his twelfth best-selling book of fiction. Fifteen-year-old Margherita lives with her eccentric family on the outskirts of town, a semi-urban wilderness peopled by gypsies, illegal immigrants, and no end of bizarre characters: a reassuring and fertile playground for an imaginative little girl like Margherita. But one day, a gigantic, black cube shows up next door. Her new neighbors have arrived, and they're destined to ruin everything., Out of nowhere, a black glass cube appears in front of Margherita's house surrounded by an aseptic fake garden and a tall hedge. The Del Benes have arrived, bearers of 'the new', of blessed joys of consumption. Friends or fiends? Margherita's family falls under a kind of dark spell to which nobody is immune., A stirring picture of the powerful social forces of conformity and consumerism. The crushing weight of black glass and concrete development, TV, aircon and glossy magazine living meets the age-old Italian qualities of eccentricity, good food, tolerance and a love of the countryside and nature. All told through the endearing persona of an overweight high school girl with a defective heart and a love for writing charmingly bad poetry.
LC Classification NumberPQ4862.E565