{"product_id":"the-day-before-happiness-modern-classics-9780141984506","title":"The Day Before Happiness MODERN CLASSICS","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e''Happiness - was it right to name it without knowing it? It sounded  shameless in my mouth, like when someone shows off about knowing a  celebrity and just uses their first name, saying Marcello when they  really mean Mastroianni ...''\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eA young orphan boy grows up in Naples, playing football, roaming the  city''s streets and hidden places. The older boys call him ''monkey''  because he can climb anywhere. He is alone, apart from Don Gaetano, the  apartment caretaker, who feeds him, teaches him to play \u003ci\u003escopa\u003c\/i\u003e,  and tells him stories about women, history and the dark secrets of  Naples'' past. Then one day the boy sees a young girl standing at a  window. It is an encounter that will haunt his life for years and,  eventually, shape his destiny. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLyrical and exuberant, told with the simplicity of a fairy tale and the intensity of a memory, \u003ci\u003eThe Day Before Happiness \u003c\/i\u003eis the  story of friendship, a city and what makes us who we are.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePowered by a combination of charm, warmth and simplicity... poignancy gives way to wry humour at regular intervals throughout the book, and the result is a brittle, lyrical, finely poised tragicomedy -- Malcolm Forbes * Herald Scotland *\u003cbr\u003eAn economically expressed yet vividly imagined coming-of-age story... De Luca is a native of Naples and in a sense this book is a love letter to the city -- Roger Cox * Scotsman *\u003cbr\u003eHigh hopes in clear language, cautions against real evil, and scenes thick with poetic sentiment - these elements fuel the warmth to be found in De Luca's brief but affecting novels * The National *\u003cbr\u003eThe only true first-rate writer that the new millennium has given us so far * Corriere della Serra *","brand":"Penguin Books Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732503966039,"sku":"9780141984506","price":999.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-day-before-happiness-modern-classics-9780141984506","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}