Advertisement
Books

Anna by Niccolò Ammaniti – review

“Reminiscent of Lord of the Flies, Niccolò Ammaniti’s Anna is a brutal but moving post-apocalyptic tale”

Niccolò Ammaniti is a bestseller in his native Italy, with many of his seven novels being adapted into films in his home country. His new novel Anna is typically forthright, a brutal but moving post-apocalyptic tale set in a world where adults have all been wiped out by a virus, and where children can expect to catch the same disease at puberty.

Anna is a girl in her early teens struggling to survive in the harsh, lawless landscape, and also struggling to look after her little brother Astor. The reader is immersed in the author’s world from page one, as Anna evades a pack of wild dogs tracking her as she looks for food.

Anna is written with such heart and compassion for the plight of the characters that you can’t help but get sucked in

Mixed in with the survival tale are poignant flashbacks to the world before, a world that Anna’s brother doesn’t even remember, as Anna consults 
a book of ‘important things’ 
her mother wrote for her before she died.

Anna is hard to read at times, reminiscent of Lord of the Flies or Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, but it is written with such heart and compassion for the plight of the characters that you can’t help but get sucked in and root for them. Compelling and moving writing.

Anna by Niccolò Ammaniti is out now (Canongate, £10.99)

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

SIGN THE PETITION

Will you sign Big Issue's petition to ask Keir Starmer to pass a Poverty Zero law? It's time to hold government to account on poverty once and for all.

Recommended for you

Read All
Top 5 books about climate grief, chosen by Aerth author Deborah Tomkins
Books

Top 5 books about climate grief, chosen by Aerth author Deborah Tomkins

I Love You, Byeee by Adam Buxton review – catnip for comedy nerds
Books

I Love You, Byeee by Adam Buxton review – catnip for comedy nerds

Bob Dylan: Jewish Roots, American Soil by Harry Freedman review – other Dylan books are available
Books

Bob Dylan: Jewish Roots, American Soil by Harry Freedman review – other Dylan books are available

Labelling toxic masculinity as 'incomprehensible' is a cop out – here's why
Toxic masculinity

Labelling toxic masculinity as 'incomprehensible' is a cop out – here's why

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue
4.

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue