One Hundred Strokes of the Hairbrush

A
teenage girl from a nowhere town pours her heart into prose. A risk-taking
publisher turns that prose into a book. It outsells almost everything
else in Italy, making its author famous.

That is an accurate enough account of what has happened to Melissa Panarello,
but not a full one. It omits a few crucial details, starting with her subject
matter: the erotic adventures of a sexually ravenous girl who caroms between
younger and older men, homosexuality and sadomasochism.

"The experiences in reality happened in less than a year, even though
the book talks of them happening in two years," she said with a seemingly
studied matter-of-factness that left no room for embarrassment or boastfulness.

That chilly bluntness matches the tone of "One Hundred Strokes of
the Hairbrush Before Going to Sleep," a 143-page wisp of a book that
has had a wallop of an impact.
Since its publication in July, it has sold about 500,000 copies in Italy
– an astonishing figure in a country with about 57 million people – and
remains near or at the top of the nation’s best-seller lists.

Publishing rights for it have been purchased in about a dozen countries,
including the United States, where an English translation is scheduled
for release next fall by Grove/Atlantic.

from the
New York Times