Italian author Niccolo Ammaniti has been described as one of the best writers of his generation, and if his novella Me and You (Text Publishing) is anything to go by, this is not an unreasonable claim.
It deals with a single week in the life of 14-year-old Lorenzo. For as long as he can remember, Lorenzo has been a loner.
Inspired by a documentary on mantis flies he has learned to mimic his schoolmates well enough to fit in, but this is not enough for his parents, who want him to have friends, too.
When he tells his mother he has been invited on a ski week with a group from school she is so happy and excited by his news that he is trapped in the lie and, rather than disappoint her, he creates a hideout in the cellar of their apartment building where he intends to spend the time with his Marvel comics, PlayStation, and a selection of Steven King novels.
His solitude is interrupted, however, when his estranged half-sister Olivia turns up in the early stages of heroin withdrawal and in desperate need of refuge. During the next few days of intense, claustrophobic proximity, Lorenzo learns as much about himself as he does about his sister, lessons that will change his life completely.
Although I was not entirely convinced by Lorenzo's moment of epiphany, Ammaniti (and his translator, Kylee Doust) capture both the physical setting and the voice of the young narrator beautifully; the damp, mildewy cellar stashed with cans of tuna, artichokes and other supplies for Lorenzo's sojourn, the thoughts and dreams of a boy who wishes he really was a wasp, not a fly dressed up as a wasp, and his helplessness and horror in the face of Olivia's own solitary battle with herself. All the more effective by being short enough to read at a single sitting, Me and You is, quite literally, a story that cannot - and ought not - be put down.
In it, the author offers us a fascinating insight into the complexities of both his profession and of human nature itself; crimes committed (or not) through accident and intent, in desperation and in cold blood, individuals acquitted on technicalities and imprisoned through miscarriages of justice or in acts of self-sacrifice.
These vignettes would merit attention simply by their refusal to conform to the black-and-white portrayal of the law that predominates in today's punitive society, but von Schirach is also a masterful writer who can pack so much emotional and philosophical punch into a few short pages that I could only read a single story at a time.
While this might sound daunting, there is a lightness and a humour to many of them that both leaven the mood and serve as a reminder that life is often stranger than fiction (my favourite involves a key, a mastiff, a Mercedes and a large dose of Animilax). Powerful, moving and thought-provoking, Guilt reminds us that "there but for the grace of God go we".
• Dr McKinney is a Dunedin scientist.
