[Italian Books] A Great Novel For Italian Language Learners

“Can you recommend a good Italian book?” is one of the questions I get the most.

And this is no surprise. First of all, I am an avid reader. I often write about Italian books on this blog, have written graded readers myself, and strongly believe that reading does wonders for improving foreign language skills. Therefore, it’s quite normal that most of my students love reading and look for book recommendations.

However, finding a good novel for students is not an easy task. I have written about many Italian books here before, but not many of the books I blogged about fall into the “good novels for Italian students” category. Most of them are a bit lengthy, with complicated stories or numerous speculations rather than action, making them great books to read in translation if you want to learn more about Italian culture, but quite tiresome if you are not an advanced Italian speaker.

In my opinion, a novel that is good for Italian learning purposes must have the following characteristics: the story must be easy to follow, without many digressions or flashbacks, it should be divided into small chapters, there should be a good balance between dialogue and descriptions, making the reading experience less challenging, and the language must be contemporary.

So far, I have found two good novels for students: one is La felicità è una storia semplice, and the other is Per dieci minuti. Recently, a student who had read both books wanted to try something new. While browsing my bookshelf in search of a suitable title for him, I came across a book I had read years ago and loved. After checking it, I realized that it ticks most of the boxes when it comes to being a good choice for an Italian student, so here we go: there’s a new book to recommend!

The book I am referring to is Mio fratello rincorre i dinosauri by Giacomo Mazzariol. The book is a memoir, so its story is not exactly linear but contains some digressions. Yet, the language is easy to follow, and there are a lot of dialogues and short chapters, so I think it still is a good choice for B1 students who are not scared of passato remoto (which is heavily used, like in many other Italian novels).

The starting point of this book is quite interesting. In 2015, Giacomo, the author of the book, posted a video on YouTube. In the video, called The Simple Interview, he interviewed his little brother Giovanni, who has Down syndrome. The video, which is both cute and funny, shows Giovanni’s daily life with his family and friends and has had incredible success, to the point that Giacomo Mazzariol received a book proposal.

In the book, which is equally funny, gentle, and moving, Giacomo writes about his life with a brother who is different from the others. When Giovanni is born, his parents tell Giacomo that his brother is “special”, so he thinks he is a superhero. Growing up, Giacomo realizes that his brother is not a superhero; he’s just different. This is very difficult for him to accept, especially when Giacomo becomes a teenager and only wants to conform and be like the others.

It’s a really honest coming-of-age story, where nothing is hidden, even the shame and the embarrassment for a brother who doesn’t stick to the norm. But shame is only a temporary feeling, and it is easily surpassed by love and acceptance, respect, and pride for all the goals Giovanni reaches during his life. This makes it a beautiful story and an equally beautiful book, written by a very talented 19-year-old boy.

The book was published in 2016 and immediately had great success. It was also made into a movie, titled Mio fratello ricorre i dinosauri, which came out in 2019.

By the way, have you read any good Italian books recently? Tell me!