Title: Diary of a young psychopath
Author: Michele Ponte
Published by Via Lettera Ltd.
Translation from Italian: Raina Castoldi
Editor: Diana Nikolova
Book cover: Kamena Dimitrova
ISBN: 978-619-7204-01-8
Year of publication: 2014
152 pages
Format: 130 х 200 mm
Where would you run if you wanted to hide from the rest of the world? And if it’s true that all roads lead to Rome and you live there, can you really escape?
The young Luigi Trampoli is trying to find some peace of mind after suffering a huge loss and it seems to him that the most logical way to handle the situation is to run away. In his endeavour to preserve his right mind, he crosses half of Europe, seeks his family roots in Poland, finds new friends and rediscovers old ones and often finds himself just a brush away from love. He keeps questioning his own sanity and often asks himself the fundamental question whether he has become a psycho.
And all of that happens before your curious and at times pretty arrogant eyes. Yes, you are his constant companion and observer and he has no idea what you want from him! You will find out what exactly your role is in his story at the end of the novel. And Luigi will understand that every return to Rome is just another step towards his true self on the road to maturity.
Similarly to his protagonist, Michele Ponte is a young and ambitious Italian writer. Born in 1988, he grew up in Rome. At present Ponte splits his time (depending on the available low-cost flights) between Italy and Poland. Besides being a writer, he also often works as a journalist. His first novel ‘I hate the Italians’ was published in 2010.
‘Diary of a young psychopath’ is his second novel, published in Italy in December 2011. Behind the seemingly bombastic titles of Ponte’s novels, there is always some extremely honest and moving story, told through the voice of a young contemporary. Ponte does not impose his opinion of his characters on the reader. He is not even trying to make his characters likeable but they are surely credible. His open interactive approach involves the reader into a direct dialogue with them.
As some critics in Italy comment on the novel, at first sight the protagonist Luigi may put you off as vain, even selfish. His purely juvenile reflex to be ironic and undermine everything that surrounds him may prove to be revolting at first. But on a deeper level his arrogance is just an attempt to mask the pain, sadness and his internal insecurity.
Luigi’s attempts to run away from his problems and at the same time to start a new life, however, lead him to a fundamental internal conflict, which he needs to solve in order to move on. It is precisely his youthful rebellion and lack of experience that at the end of the day make him look authentic and accepted by the reader.
‘Diary of a young psychopath’ gathered even more popularity after it was published as eBook on Amazon in 2013 with high sales and numerous comments from readers.