Anna is thirteen. This means that soon she must die – like all children. The virus was first detected in 2016 in Belgium and rapidly spread across the world, appears to act on hormones, have the adults only. Therefore, all the “big ones” have long since died while the children a grace period remains. All on his own, they fight for four years now alone, in groups or organized gangs through the remains of civilization. With the onset of puberty soon red spots show on the body, and then “the Red Plague” streamlined and it within a few days, at most weeks there.
The end of humanity is in sight.
Or is there somewhere surviving adults? Rumors of physically protected researcher or magicians are circulating everywhere. This hope following Anna, she leaves her parents’ house in Castellammare del Golfo (west of Palermo) behind him, running towards Messina to somehow overcome the Straits and to look on the mainland to rescue.
Anna must ensure their own survival (to find food and beds, feral animals and brutalized peers ward), meeting daily vital decisions.
The death of one of her life: dying young, decaying body, the knowledge of their own mortality. She wears responsibility for Astor, her little brother about six years. Orientation and support gives her all in an exercise book in which you wrote down everything about “important things” the farsighted, well-read mother before her death. The chapters provide basic medical knowledge and advice for all possible situations, which will be exposed to the children.
Above all, it gives them confidence and trust ( “You are smart and capable, and I am sure that you make the … The most important thing will be that you always use your head.”).
Niccolò Ammaniti a child has voted on the threshold of the adult world as a protagonist in his latest novel again – for the first time a girl. Unlike their predecessors Michele (in “I’m not afraid” [Lesen here my review of Niccolò Ammaniti: “Ich have no Angst” on books Rezensionen”
How do children without adult prove pilots without the blessings of civilization after the varnish of European culture in the struggle for survival is scuffed fast? the exciting starting situation is reminiscent of great role models. William Golding has created a similar laboratory quarantine in “Lord of the Flies” by an English boys choir crash on an uninhabited island paradise left. reason and morality flounder miserably to irrationality and violence. Sets Ammaniti with Sicilian children a more optimistic image of man it? Or he wants to make us realize what course we must make today so that our children have a future as Annas spared?
Such things Profound would be unusual for the author. Ammaniti was always brilliant storyteller, but no programmatic. “Anna” is adventure novel of dystopia basis and Road Movie , and that may well suffice for a good book. The journey of the protagonist, however, is not good even as a metaphor, because it changes little during their migrations from scene to scene. Findings remain banal: “We have to move on without looking back because we can not control the energy that we penetrate, and desperate even, maimed and blind we eat more, sleep and swim against the vortex that pulls us down . “<
Nevertheless, tells enthralling experience what Anna and her brother in apocalyptic no man’s land. Even the question of whether it will succeed Anna’s brother and to save themselves, despite all the dangers that keeps the tension high until the end. The fantasy of the author designed wide and detailed how the children come to terms in their doomed world – there is (a little) friendship, budding love, compassion, helpfulness, resourcefulness, and especially the ruthless enforcement of selfish interests, unbridled violence, banding , Capitalism flourishes even in the children’s world: the clever use alleged knowledge or magical powers attracts other, gives power over them, they coaxed wealth (in this rare treasures such as batteries, medicine and candy), relegates them to the slave
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Interestingly, as a need for spirituality manifested. Artfully decorated Anna the bones of the mother and arranges them in a locked master bedroom as relics, before which she gets power. A few long since become useless objects symbolize the lost paradise for them and Astor. To keep the little brother from exploring their patronage to slip away and the surrounding area on your own, inventing the myth of an evil god “Danone” (whose name at last chocolate cream luxury recalls).
Ammanitis uncomplicated prose is lively, tremendously visually suggestive and dramatic as ever, but must get by here without ease and cynicism. At the most influential are the detailed descriptions of the dilapidated, devastated by violence, looting and major fires scenery. Dust and ashes everywhere, no glass is intact, unaufgebrochen no door. Things that determine our daily lives, each value lost – smart phones, refrigerators, televisions, bathrooms, money. foreshadow snakes to himself stainless cars as tens of thousands sought to escape their fate before they had to realize that there was no escape. In their daily search for dining and drinkable scours Anna huge stock sinister supermarket halls. The nature overgrown buildings, squares and highways. Feral domestic animals pass through deserted neighborhoods. A particularly brutalized dog gives the author an own biography. Ironically, he was once bred for fighting beast, his master had come loose from the chain and then, finally free, fighting for his life after death. After Anna wins the power struggle against him and his life saves (one of the most powerful scenes in the novel), he accompanies them henceforth faithful like a guardian angel. The common way from station to station determines the linear structure of the plot, do not sparked the suction effect of earlier Plotkonstruktionen where hinzielten multiple strands inevitably to disaster.
Among the situations both with confront behavior alternatives and demand from them bold solutions, the stay much space occupies in an obscure community in a run luxury hotel in the mountains. Hundreds of children cavort on the grounds, guards control access, some leaders seem rituals to specify a grotesque Knochenkult. The rumor that a mysterious old healing will bring, is fueling the irrational mood, culminating in the mass hysteria of a gigantic “Fireproof”. Derlei Narrenschiff spectacle, usually covered ironic and dramatic, are Ammanitis specialty. Ironically, however, in this dystopia, the scene looks too artificial, strange and unnecessary
In their relentless environment operates Anna unemotional, pragmatic, prudent, and independent -. a strong fighter. Impressive the maturity with which she prepared her brother for the time after her own death. These are extraordinary characters who prove themselves in a brutal reality in the sign of death and with whom we are going through existential experience of Freud, suffering, danger and loss. For eight years, the author has filed by his own admission to the fabric. And yet the novel could hardly be deeper under the skin than its predecessors, where commitment and passion of the author in the exuberant storytelling, the ironic note of his character drawings and amused observation itself absurdester episodes was reflected. The tragedy is probably not Ammanitis strength.
Anna Niccolò Ammaniti Review. (2019, Nov 18). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/anna-niccolo-ammaniti-my-review/