Melissa Panarello (born 3 December 1985 in Catania), alias Melissa P., is an Italian writer.[1]
Panarello grew up in the small Sicilian town of Aci Castello, near Catania in Italy. In 2003 she became famous for authoring the erotic novel, 100 colpi di spazzola prima di andare a dormire (translated into English by Lawrence Venuti as One Hundred Strokes of the Brush Before Bed, 2004).[1] The novel, written in diary form, focuses on the narrator’s extreme sexual life during her teenage years and is loosely based on the author’s own experiences.[1] The book was distributed in forty countries and translated into over thirty languages. Coming from Sicily, one of the most traditional and old-fashioned parts of Italy, Panarello’s book created a scandal because she writes about penetration, sperm, and orgasm in a very matter-of-fact fashion.