"An author in unquestioned control of his vocabulary, his phrases brief but beautifully cadenced." Daily Telegraph

Without Blood begins with a shocking, visceral act of violence - the assassination of a man and his family. Only the daughter, Nina, survives, thanks to an extraordinary act of mercy by one of the attackers. She is just four years old.

Decades later Nina hunts down the last of her family's murderers, the man who was her saviour. Their meeting brings about reappraisals of their respective lives and what took place on that fateful night over half a century earlier.

Highly visual and unforgettably sad, Without Blood is a haunting book about damage, longing, memory and forgiveness. Ann Goldstein's superb translation captures Baricco's effortless prose style and gives readers in Britain the opportunity to experience this gem of a novel that has already delighted hundreds of thousands across Europe.

"Baricco's delicate, minimalist prose style, full of wistful refrains and subtle rondos, is closer to a haiku than anything in the European literary tradition."
Independent on Sunday

"Without Blood is a fable for adults with its twin themes of revenge and redemption and fi erce, haunting imagery. Baricco is the new Hans Christian Andersen."
Daily Mail

Translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein