The book
Cristiano is thirteen. Home life is far from perfect. When his father and two friends come up with a plan to rob a bank, Cristiano sees the chance of a better life. As a tremendous storm brews that night, Cristiano will have to put childhood behind him once and for all, and the perfect crime will have shocking consequences.
The Reviews
The Crossroads is a rollicking dark horror-comic, a gruelling piece of fun.
IndependentA compulsively readable tragedy with a bleakly comic underbelly, as if the Kray twins' gang had been infiltrated by a couple of Marx brothers.
Sunday Herald
Undeniably gripping . . . Indeed, this is in a surprising way a love story.
ScotsmanAmmaniti fills his scenes with such rich detail, humour and surprise that it is impossible not to be drawn in . . . A forceful portrait of contemporary Italy, providing a long overdue counterbalance to the romantic, tourism-drive portraits of the country. And yet, for all the harshness of his world, warmth bubbles up between the cracks.
Financial TimesOne of Italy's brightest literary stars . . . Combines tense horror with the blackest comedy.
ObserverEvery scene contains a twist.
GuardianOffers an artful interstiching of plots and cinematic, horror-dazed images, and Jonathan Hunt's translation is exemplary.
ObserverEnergy and danger spray off it like water from a choppy sea . . . Very hard to put down.
Daily MailBrutal but effective.
The TimesAmmaniti has cranked up the volume for his blistering new novel.
Independent