Ivan Villa “Collapsed Nights… Grunts at Breakfast”

Collapsed nights... grunts at breakfast.

Ivan Villa
“Collapsed Nights… Grunts at Breakfast”
NeP Edizioni

There comes a moment in every parent's life when Patagonia seems like a reasonable destination. Ivan Villa knows it well: at the heart of his book are the adventures and misadventures of a father dealing with three daughters aged thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen. Three teenagers together, under the same roof, with only one bathroom available in the morning.
nepedizioni

The book unfolds through short stories, small snapshots of family life where endless journeys to school or practice, balancing budgets, alarms, and occupied bathrooms become narrative material. And then there's the language, which changes faster than clothing sizes: a vocabulary in constant update, with words like flexing and ghosting, while breakfast conversations are reduced to a few grunts. 

Villa's writing has a unique rhythm, composed of quick dialogues, parentheses, lists, quotes, and constant changes of pace, moving naturally from comedy to melancholy. There are literary references ranging from Bukowski to Borges, but the heart remains the family, with its embarrassments, silences, and the distance that grows just as affection does. A book that makes parents, teachers, and educators smile, reminding us that growing up is a journey for two: those who grow and those who watch, a bit exhausted.
“collapsed nights…grunts at breakfast”: parenting and adolescence told with irony in Ivan Villa's book

Ivan Villa works with children and teenagers, “in every order and disorder of schools.” For childhood and adolescence, he wrote Brr… What Stories! (Emme Edizioni, 2019), First Year of Middle School, I Better Do Well! (Lapis, 2021), and The Ibex's Vertigo (Lapis, 2025). He is also an author of puzzles, concentric frames, and cryptograms for La Settimana Enigmistica, with awards and recognitions.