Cuore, The Heart of a Boy by Edmundo De Amicis

Required reading in Italian schools since 1886, Cuore is the Huckleberry Finn of Italy - the most read classic in the country. Presented in the form of a diary, its subject is a young boy's life in Turin following Unification in 1870. The narrator, Enrico, writes vividly of school life and the bustling city of vegetable-sellers, chimney sweeps and carpenters all around him. Like Huck Finn or Dickens, Cuore has been adapted into just about every conceivable medium - there are films, major TV series, radio adaptations, plays and comic books. It is a set text on courses from University College London to Harvard and is even a cult classic in Japan in its incarnation as an anime film. From Henry Miller, who wrote a glowing monograph on the book, to world-famous tenor Andrea Bocelli, who wrote a song about it, this simple tale of childhood has inspired all kinds of people and continues to do so today.