"Gianni Rodari gave free rein to his imagination, with inspired panache and gleeful lightness. At the same time, he had a precise and meticulous love for detail, for rich and exact language, and so all of his inventions are set in a very concrete world with real form and action." -Italo Calvino "Making a comedy out of a terrorist kidnapping is tricky stuff, but this book for both children and adults is a daring highwire act that works. In the shocking tradition of Roald Dahl, this hilarious Italian fairytale is peppered with scuba diving suits, submachine guns and custom sports cars. At times antic with goofy buffoonery, at times grisly with uncomfortable realism-Rodari has a sense of comedy that smacks of the Marx Brothers, but with a darker, post 9/11 edge more in keeping with the grimmer satires of South Park." -Shelf Awareness "If Roald Dahl had rewritten The Picture of Dorian Gray to include a gang of 24 bandits and a giant balloon, the result might have been Rodari's wonderfully improbable novel." -Publishers Weekly "Lamberto belongs to that family of comic writing that glories in the full spectrum of the absurd." -LA Review of Books "If you are looking for a book that transports you, that contains details you will return to for years to come, and that you may, someday, give to your children, it's this one.
" -The Lit Pub "Stuffed with amusing characters and off-the-wall events, Lamberto, Lamberto, Lamberto evokes a texturally rich setting that skillfully weaves together satire and fantasy. You'd be hard-pressed not to enjoy this young adult fairy tale from Italy." -Fiction Advocate "Making a comedy out of a terrorist kidnapping is tricky stuff, but this book for both children and adults is a daring high-wire act that works." -Nick DiMartino, Shelf Awareness "It may seem like grisly stuff for a children's book, but Rodari mixes magic with terrorists and tabloids and manages to come out with something altogether wonderful, and sure to please young and old alike." -Flavorwire's 10 New Must-Reads for December "Give yourself up to this insightful tour guide, and you might just find yourself confronting the absurdities of your own life." -New York Journal of Books "Rodari's story is, to say the least, unpredictable." -The Complete Review "Absurdities abound but never overwhelm, this is satire of the highest order." -Largehearted Boy "Hilarity ensues in a story that retains the wonder and delight of Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth or Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince.
" -Barnes and Noble (Long List pick) From the Hardcover edition.