ONE STEP TO YOU

A vintage Italian romance of two teenagers from different social spheres, translated into English for the first time.

Babi Gervasi is a well-off, well-liked 17-year-old in 1980s Rome. She's got good friends, is doing well in school, and gets on well with her family. When she meets Stefano “Step” Mancini, though, everything goes a little haywire. Step, a young hooligan (as Babi's mother would say), is all about living for the moment, partying with friends, and racing motorcycles. His best friend, Pollo, is dating Babi's best friend, Pallina, so despite Babi's best efforts, she keeps bumping into him. Annoyance turns to interest turns to love, and Babi and Step find themselves head over heels. School, Babi's mother, and the world in general, however, are determined to tear them apart. Moccia wrote this novel in 1992, and it has since been published in 15 languages and has at least two film adaptions. Reading it almost 30 years later, though, it comes off feeling incredibly dated, with the relationships being the most off-putting aspect. Step is cruel to Babi before they begin dating, harassing her and constantly pushing her boundaries. He's also incredibly violent, putting several people in the hospital over the course of the book. Even when he's doing things in order to help Babi, he goes about it in awful ways, especially in the case of one of her teachers. Current readers might find it hard to empathize with this love story, as issues that might have been more easily glossed over in the early '90s are harder to ignore these days.

A classic with all that entails—outdated morals and all.