{"product_id":"party-with-cassowary","title":"Party with Cassowary","description":"\u003cb\u003eA college party in the hills of northern Italy descends into a harrowing and outlandish rite of passage. Like the beguiling bird at its center, \u003ci\u003eParty with Cassowary \u003c\/i\u003edares its characters--and its readers--to confront something dangerous, inscrutable, demanding to be touched. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Surprising and spellbinding.\" --Vincenzo Latronico, author of \u003ci\u003ePerfection\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIt's the beginning of summer. Isa M., a second-year lit major, is throwing a party at her family's lavish villa on the outskirts of Turin. The music is loud, the prosecco is flowing, and the garden is packed with friends--and maybe a few gate-crashers. The only guest who hasn't arrived yet is Ezio, the boy she's falling in love with. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThen an anonymous gift turns up on the kitchen counter: a bottle of Barbera with a card that reads, \u003ci\u003e Unless someone touches the cassowary before 1am, Ezio dies.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAt 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. (Or why the neighbors are keeping one in the surrounding woods!) \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAs 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. Shifting among a chorus of students (including a Tarot reader, a would-be philosopher in a parka, a perennial tag-along who's been exiled from the group chat, and a shy artist from Puglia caught up in the night's seductive chaos), \u003ci\u003eParty with Cassowary\u003c\/i\u003e captures the precarity of early adulthood with piercing wit and a generous heart. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWinner of Italy's Premio Mondello, with rights sold around the globe, Leonardo San Pietro's debut is an existential thriller and a magnetic, mannerist portrait of a generation paralyzed by the weight of desire and decision.","brand":"Knopf Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55007152374126,"sku":"9798217208500","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0984\/1007\/0382\/files\/imageloader_845aca55-9079-4ae4-af43-7415d5261059.jpg?v=1789223326","url":"https:\/\/tenderbuttonsbooks.com\/products\/party-with-cassowary","provider":"Tender Buttons Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}