Set in Southern Italy during the staggeringly hot summer of 1978. Corn fields cover the hills in every direction like an undulating sea of gold against the deep blue sky. At the centre of it all is a tiny community of five houses. While the adults shelter indoors from the blistering heat, six children venture out on their bicycles across the scorched deserted countryside. Hidden amongst the vast sea of corn nine-year-old Michele discovers a secret so momentous and so terrible that he dare not tell anyone about it. To confront it he must depend on the power of his youthful imagination and the courage he does not yet know he has.
Based on Niccolò Ammanniti's international best seller.