General Fiction

Fai bei sogni

(Sweet Dreams)

Casa Editrice Longanesi&C., March 2012, pp.234

one million and a half of copies sold

The story of a child, and the man he has become, who cannot overcome the greatest pain of all: the loss of his mother.

English Translation Available

Sometimes the truth can be a difficult companion. Sometimes, rather than face the truth, we prefer to dwell in resentment and the uncertainties of a fragile life. It has taken the protagonist forty years to open that envelope, forty years to find the courage to start living again. That is the first step to grow up and to accept life without the most important support of all: his mother’s. A series of episodes, some dramatic, some ironic or funny, reveal the deepest meaning of the relentless struggle the protagonist undertakes against his sense of loneliness, of inadequacy and of neglect. Love and a full, authentic life, are the rewards awaiting him.
Fai bei sogni is a novel about truth and the fear of truth; it is a story that shows how we need to accept pain and to leave behind the fear and diffidence which limit our life. A moving story, capable of talking about universal feelings while touching an intimate chord in anyone’s heart.

Casa Editrice Longanesi&C., March 2012, pp.234

  • “A light, direct, bright and ironic style that is never rushed or banal; Gramellini masters the art of writing about emotions”

    Isabella Bossi Fedrigotti, Corriere della Sera

  • “Gramellini’s book teaches us to love ourselves a little bit more”.

    Aldo Cazzullo, Sette

  • “The book is just like a thermometer gone mad: it moves from the heat of a radiator-mother to the chill of the days spent playing alone”.

    Grazia

  • “The storytelling is unique: it constantly shifts from novel to autobiography and back to novel”.

    Fulvio Scaglione, Famiglia Cristiana

  • “A very powerful book. A book that breaks your heart.”

    Luciana Littizzetto, actress and writer

Rights Sold

Albania: Botimet Dudaj-Dudaj Publishing; Chinese printed in semplified characters: Hunan Literature and Arts Publishing House Co. (Mainland China); Chinese printed in traditional/complex characters: Titan Publishing Co. (Taiwan, Hong Kong S.A.R., Macau S.A.R.); Estonia: Tänapäev; France: Laffont; Germany: Piper; Greece: Patakis; Holland: Meulenhoff; Hungary: Par Kiado; Israel: Yedioth Books; Norway: Pantagruel; Poland: WAB; Portugal: Bertrand; Serbia: Evro Giunti; Spain: Destino/Planeta (Castilian) – Ara Llibres (Catalan); Turkey: Pegasus; US and Canada: Atria/Simon and Schuster; UK: Almabooks.

Fai bei sogni is a 2016 Italian film directed by Marco Bellocchio, based on this novel.

Massimo Gramellini

Massimo Gramellini is a journalist and television presenter. Since 2017 he has been writing for Il Corriere della Sera, of which he is a deputy editor. Since 2016 he has has been hosting the RAI 3 TV programme Le parole della settimana. With Longanesi, he has published the essays Ci salveranno gli ingenui (The Innocents Will Save Us, 2007), Cuori allo specchio (Hearts at the Mirror, 2008), La magia di un Buongiorno (The Magic of a ‘Good Morning’, 2014) and the bestselling novels L’ultima riga delle favole (The Final Line of Fairy Tales, 2010) and Fai bei sogni (Sweet Dreams, 2012), which sold over a million and a half copies and has been translated into 22 languages. In 2019, he published Prima che tu venga al mondo (Before You Come into the World).

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