Party Animal cover art

Party Animal

The intoxicating Italian novel of friendship, desire and one outlandish dare

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Party Animal

By: Leonardo San Pietro, Todd Portnowitz - translator
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A party in the hills of northern Italy descends into an outlandish rite of passage in this electrifying international sensation

It’s the beginning of summer. Isa M, a literature student, is throwing a party at her family’s villa on the outskirts of Turin. The music is loud, the drinks are flowing, and the garden is packed with friends – and maybe a few gatecrashers. The only guest who hasn’t arrived yet is Ezio, the boy she’s falling in love with.

Then an anonymous gift turns up on the kitchen table: a bottle of wine with a card that reads, Unless someone touches the cassowary before one a.m., Ezio dies.

At first it seems like a prank. Except Ezio still isn’t answering his phone. And no one’s sure who brought the bottle. Or what, exactly, a cassowary is… As the hours tick by – and the undergrads wade further into a heady mix of alcohol, drugs, jealousy, lust and dread – the gravity of the dare sinks in.

‘SPELLBINDING’ VINCENZO LATRONICO, author of Perfection

‘Psychedelic drugs, rival friends, a giant killer bird… I loved it’ RITA BULLWINKEL, author of Headshot

’Like locking eyes with a dangerous creature’ SEÁN HEWITT, author of Open, Heaven

‘Will have you itching to let loose with your friends just one last time’ TOBI COVENTRY, author of He’s the Devil

‘Absolutely gripping’ STEPHANIE DANLER, author of Sweetbitter

‘I downed this fizzy, bittersweet spritz of a novel in a single gulp’ ANDREW RIDKER, author of Hope

© Leonardo San Pietro 2027 (P) Penguin Audio 2027

 Coming of Age Friendship Genre Fiction Literary Fiction World Literature
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Critic reviews

A talon-sharp interrogation of friendship, jealousy, hubris, and desire told through a whirlwind of enthralling voices that cry out from the page. This bright flash of a novel will stay with you long after you read the last page (WILLIAM RAYFET HUNTER, author of Sunstruck)
A dazzling and charismatic whodunnit filled with villas, prosecco, psychedelic drugs, a gorgeous depressed heiress, an upstart artist, a fortune teller, rival friends, a beautiful garden, a giant killer bird, and the possibility of love. It has a stylized, cinematic fuzz to it. I loved it (RITA BULLWINKEL, author of Headshot)
Like locking eyes with a dangerous creature, Party Animal crackles through the reader with a bolt of glorious terror. Full of the heat and self-consciousness of youth, this is a humid, inventive, surreal novel about performance, fear and the discovery of beauty (SEÁN HEWITT, author of Open, Heaven)
A wild fever dream of youth, angst and hedonism. As it builds toward its terrible climax, Party Animal will have you questioning all of your life’s decisions, and itching to let loose with your friends just one last time (TOBI COVENTRY, author of He's the Devil)
A reminder that a youth misspent is a youth well spent. I downed this fizzy, bittersweet spritz of a novel in a single gulp (ANDREW RIDKER, author of Hope)
Finally, a proper novel about twenty-year-olds – full of rhythm and yes, naivety, of courage and fun . . . A story of pure energy
Certain books are able to capture, with deep understanding and a light touch, the state of an entire generation . . . The writing in this novel is a language completely its own, fleet-footed . . . pure, crystalline
An electrifying debut, Party with Cassowary captures the feverish logic of youth – all its hunger and cruelty – with rare intelligence and style. Leonardo San Pietro writes with a sensual, searching intensity, each character’s voice bending to the pressure of the moment. Absolutely gripping – seductive, cerebral, and charged with real danger. I finished it stunned. (STEPHANIE DANLER, author of Sweetbitter)
With a dark, offbeat brilliance that slips between the paradoxical and the philosophical, and a style that feels almost elusive, the author pushes readers to ask: what shape would the future take, if it suddenly stood right in front of us? For Leonardo San Pietro, the future looks like a cassowary. (Jury of the POP Opera Prima! Prize)
So stylish, so fun, so ominous, so assured, Party Animal is a psychological page-turner and a sensuous social satire unlike anything else I've read in years, one that sinks its talons in deep (SARAH THANKAM MATTHEWS, author of All This Could Be Different)
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