God's Mountain (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781573229609)

This is a story told by a boy in his thirteenth year, recorded in his secret diary. His life is about to change; his world, about to open.

He lives in Montedidio--God's Mountain--a cluster of alleys in the heart of Naples. He brings a paycheck home every Saturday from Mast'Errico's carpentry workshop where he sweeps the floor. He is on his way to becoming a man--his boy's voice is abandoning him. His wooden boomerang is neither toy nor tool, but something in between. Then there is Maria, the thirteen-year-old girl who lives above him and, like so many girls, is wiser than he. She carries the burden of a secret life herself. She'll speak to him for the first time this summer. There is also his friendship with a cobbler named Rafaniello, a Jewish refugee who has escaped the horrors of the Holocaust, who has no idea how long he's been on this earth, and who is said to sprout wings for a blessed few.

It is 1963, a young man's summer of discovery. A time for a boy with innocent hands and a pure heart to look beyond the ordinary in everyday things to see the far-reaching landscape, and all of its possibilities, from a rooftop terrace on God's Mountain.

Author: Erri De Luca
ISBN-10: 1573229601
ISBN-13: 9781573229609
Publisher: Penguin Adult Hc/Tr
Language: English
Published: 12/03/2002
Pages: 176
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.41lbs
Size: 7.22h x 5.00w x 0.39d

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 10/15/2002 pg. 1491
Publishers Weekly 12/09/2002 pg. 63
Booklist 12/15/2002 pg. 731
Booksense '76 Mar/Apr 2003 03/01/2003 pg. 1
School Library Journal 06/01/2003 pg. 175

About the Author
Erri De Luca was born in Naples in 1950. He is a columnist for Il Manifesto and a novelist whose work has been translated into seven languages. He lives outside of Rome.