First Chapter, First Paragraph Tuesday is hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea – it’s is a weekly meme where you share the first paragraph (or two) from a book you are considering reading.

I was browsing the virtual aisles for some enticing fiction for the 2013 Translation Reading Challenge when I came across Me and You by Italian author, Niccolò Ammaniti. Here’s the first paragraph –

“Coffee?”
A waitress is studying me over the top of her glasses. She’s holding a silver coffee pot.
I put out my cup. ‘Thank you.’
She fills it up to the brim. ‘Are you here for the fair?’
I shake my head. ‘What fair?’
‘The horse fair.’ She looks at me. She’s waiting for me to tell her why I happen to be in Cividale del Friuli.

It doesn’t really pack a punch but the blurb is bizarre enough to reel me in –

“Lorenzo Cumi is a fourteen-year-old misfit. To quell the anxiety of his concerned, socially conscious parents, he tells them he’s been invited on an exclusive ski vacation with the popular kids. On the morning of the trip, Lorenzo demands that his mother drop him off before they arrive at the train station, insisting that his status will be compromised if he shows up accompanied by his mother. Reluctantly, she agrees, and as soon as she is safely out of the vicinity, he turns around and makes his way back to his neighborhood, to put his real plan in motion: for one blessed week, Lorenzo will retreat to a forgotten cellar in his family’s apartment building, where he will live in perfect isolation, keeping the adult world at bay.  But when his estranged half-sister, Olivia, shows up in the cellar unexpectedly, his idyll is shattered, and the two become locked in a battle of wills—forced to confront the very demons they are each struggling to escape.”

So First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday fans, should I continue reading? Do any of the alternative covers influence your decision?