Background
Panarello grew up in the small Sicilian town of Aci Castello, near Catania in Italy.
Panarello grew up in the small Sicilian town of Aci Castello, near Catania in Italy.
The novel, written in diary form, focuses on the narrator"s extreme sexual life during her teenage years and is loosely based on the author"s own experiences. The book was distributed in forty countries and translated into over thirty languages. Coming from Sicily, one of the most traditional and old-fashioned parts of Italy, Panarello"s book created a scandal because she writes about penetration, sperm, and orgasm in a very matter-of-fact fashion.
She published her second novel, L"odore del tuo respiro (The Scent of Your Breath), in 2005.
In that same year a film was also made about her first novel, titled, produced by Francesca Neri and directed by Luca Guadagnino. Panarello, however, did not back the film, claiming a lack of faithfulness to her novel.