![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/melitaly.jpg\")
A
\n teenage girl from a nowhere town pours her heart into prose. A risk-taking
\n publisher turns that prose into a book. It outsells almost everything
\n else in Italy, making its author famous.<\/p>\n
That is an accurate enough account of what has happened to Melissa Panarello,
\n but not a full one. It omits a few crucial details, starting with her subject
\n matter: the erotic adventures of a sexually ravenous girl who caroms between
\n younger and older men, homosexuality and sadomasochism.<\/p>\n
"The experiences in reality happened in less than a year, even though
\n the book talks of them happening in two years," she said with a seemingly
\n studied matter-of-factness that left no room for embarrassment or boastfulness.<\/p>\n
That chilly bluntness matches the tone of "One Hundred Strokes of
\n the Hairbrush Before Going to Sleep," a 143-page wisp of a book that
\n has had a wallop of an impact.
\n Since its publication in July, it has sold about 500,000 copies in Italy
\n – an astonishing figure in a country with about 57 million people – and
\n remains near or at the top of the nation’s best-seller lists.<\/p>\n
Publishing rights for it have been purchased in about a dozen countries,
\n including the United States, where an English translation is scheduled
\n for release next fall by Grove\/Atlantic.<\/p>\n
from the 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 … Continue reading
\n New York Times<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"