A01=Sandro Veronesi
Author_Sandro Veronesi
Category=FBA
Category=FV
Category=FXB
Category=FXN
Category=FYP
Category=FYT
coming of age novel
domenico starnone
elena ferrante
eq_bestseller
eq_fiction
eq_historical-fiction
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_modern-contemporary
eq_nobargain
family drama
fiction in translation
first love
forthcoming
international booker prize
Italian literature
the hummingbird
tuscany
Product details
- ISBN 9781399748544
- Dimensions: 156 x 240mm
- Publication Date: 20 Aug 2026
- Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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A dazzling, devastating coming-of-age story by the bestselling author of The Hummingbird
'As I read Black September, I kept thinking of Fellini's great film, Amarcord - the young boy's world, the eccentricity, the colour, the brilliance. It's a gem of a novel; I loved it.
RODDY DOYLE
'A perfect novel . . . Melancholic and playful . . . Veronesi proves himself a master'
LA STAMPA
'A luminous declaration of love for the fragile fault lines that shape us'
CORRIERE DELLA SERA
'A novel on a tightrope . . . Between a nostalgic portrait of an Italy marked by the turbulence of the seventies and a psychological thriller, Black September is a strangely addictive novel that leaves the reader changed'
L'ECHOS
'Magnificent . . . Pure delight'
SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG
Summer, 1972.
At his family's summer house in Versilia, Tuscany, twelve-year-old Gigio Bellandi's life is changing: caught on the cusp of adolescence, he finds the familiar places and people newly strange and intoxicating. As he discovers the adult thrills of music and reading, Gigio begins to learn who he is and to see his family without the veils of childhood. And when Astel Raimondi enters his orbit - a girl who kindles dreams and feelings he could never have imagined - his young existence is changed forever.
But every new chapter is also an ending, though it is harder to recognise at the time. And as an unexpected storm starts to threaten the golden days of summer, Gigio's world will be overturned.
Reconstructing that lost season with vivid intensity, Black September is an unforgettable coming-of-age novel about the fragility of innocence, the irreversible bloom of first love and the strange wonder of self-discovery, from one of European literature's greatest storytellers.
'A languid, wistful work that tenderly explores the facets of childhood's endless summers . . . Veronesi's Italian prose excels at capturing the soft, hazy slowness of family holidays and the radiant selfishness of adolescence'
L'EXPRESS
'Truly brilliant . . . As in Annie Ernaux's The Years, private events are interwoven with public ones'
REPUBBLICA
'[Black September] has everything: a vivid setting, jaw-dropping plot twists, dramatic tension that just builds and builds, and, best of all, characters worth not just caring about but suffering with'
RICHARD RUSSO, AUTHOR OF EMPIRE FALLS
Praise for Sandro Veronesi
'Veronesi truly knows and loves all matters of the heart'
IAN MCEWAN
'One of the most skilful and profound Italian storytellers of the past thirty years'
DOMENICO STARNONE
'As I read Black September, I kept thinking of Fellini's great film, Amarcord - the young boy's world, the eccentricity, the colour, the brilliance. It's a gem of a novel; I loved it.
RODDY DOYLE
'A perfect novel . . . Melancholic and playful . . . Veronesi proves himself a master'
LA STAMPA
'A luminous declaration of love for the fragile fault lines that shape us'
CORRIERE DELLA SERA
'A novel on a tightrope . . . Between a nostalgic portrait of an Italy marked by the turbulence of the seventies and a psychological thriller, Black September is a strangely addictive novel that leaves the reader changed'
L'ECHOS
'Magnificent . . . Pure delight'
SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG
Summer, 1972.
At his family's summer house in Versilia, Tuscany, twelve-year-old Gigio Bellandi's life is changing: caught on the cusp of adolescence, he finds the familiar places and people newly strange and intoxicating. As he discovers the adult thrills of music and reading, Gigio begins to learn who he is and to see his family without the veils of childhood. And when Astel Raimondi enters his orbit - a girl who kindles dreams and feelings he could never have imagined - his young existence is changed forever.
But every new chapter is also an ending, though it is harder to recognise at the time. And as an unexpected storm starts to threaten the golden days of summer, Gigio's world will be overturned.
Reconstructing that lost season with vivid intensity, Black September is an unforgettable coming-of-age novel about the fragility of innocence, the irreversible bloom of first love and the strange wonder of self-discovery, from one of European literature's greatest storytellers.
'A languid, wistful work that tenderly explores the facets of childhood's endless summers . . . Veronesi's Italian prose excels at capturing the soft, hazy slowness of family holidays and the radiant selfishness of adolescence'
L'EXPRESS
'Truly brilliant . . . As in Annie Ernaux's The Years, private events are interwoven with public ones'
REPUBBLICA
'[Black September] has everything: a vivid setting, jaw-dropping plot twists, dramatic tension that just builds and builds, and, best of all, characters worth not just caring about but suffering with'
RICHARD RUSSO, AUTHOR OF EMPIRE FALLS
Praise for Sandro Veronesi
'Veronesi truly knows and loves all matters of the heart'
IAN MCEWAN
'One of the most skilful and profound Italian storytellers of the past thirty years'
DOMENICO STARNONE
Sandro Veronesi was born in Florence in 1959. He is the author of nine novels including Quiet Chaos (2005), which was translated into twenty languages and won the Premio Strega, the Prix Fémina and the Prix Méditerranée. His novel The Hummingbird (2019) was an instant bestseller in Italy, was voted best book of the year by the Corriere della Sera (Italy's most widely read newspaper) and won the Premio Strega. Sandro is only the second author in the Premio Strega's history to win the prize twice.
