Occasion – That's fantastic!, Cristano Cavina

Bastiano is eight years old. In a small industrial town in northern Italy, the child grows up as best he can between a mother exhausted by housework and bills, a grandmother who spends her days staring at the wall, and a father he constantly has to reinvent to make up for his absence. Yet, Bastiano is not short on resources to combat the bleakness and difficulties. Tirelessly, he embarks on fantastic adventures... The latest: building a submarine to retrieve a bag of gold coins from the bottom of the lake. Enough to lift his family out of poverty, become the hero of his housing estate, finally see his mother's face light up, and perhaps win the heart of the beautiful Milena. Unfortunately, the line between imagination and serious trouble is thin. The harder the adult world becomes, the more Bastiano retreats into the one he invents, risking a permanent disconnect from reality. But for him, it doesn't matter: "It's awesome!" he exclaims defiantly at life, unconcerned by adult incomprehension. It's Awesome! is a moving and funny coming-of-age novel. Its young hero, Bastiano, draws us into his whimsical epic against the windmills of poverty and fate with the ardour of a pint-sized Don Quixote.