Andrea Camilleri (born 6 September 1925 in
Porto Empedocle) is an
Italian[1]
writer.
Biography
Originally from
Porto Empedocle,
Sicily,
Camilleri began studies at the Faculty of
Literature in 1944, without concluding them, meanwhile publishing
poems and short stories.
From 1948 to 1950 Camilleri studied stage and film direction at the
Silvio D'Amico Academy of Dramatic Arts (Accademia
Nazionale d'Arte Drammatica) and began to take on work as a director
and
screenwriter, directing especially plays by
Pirandello and
Beckett. As a matter of fact, his parents knew Pirandello and were
even distant friends, as he tells in his essay on Pirandello
Biography of the Changed Son. His most famous works, the Montalbano
series, show many Pirandellian elements: for example, the wild olive
tree that helps Montalbano think is on stage in his late work The
Giants of the Mountain.
With RAI,
Camilleri worked on several TV productions, such as Inspector Maigret
with
Gino Cervi. In 1977 he returned to the Academy of Dramatic Arts,
holding the chair of Film Direction and occupying it for 20 years.
In 1978 Camilleri wrote his first novel Il Corso Delle Cose
("The Way Things Go"). This was followed by Un Filo di Fumo ("A
Thread of Smoke") in 1980. Neither of these works enjoyed any
significant amount of popularity.
In 1992, after a long pause of 12 years, Camilleri once more took up
novel-writing. A new book, La Stagione della Caccia ("The Hunting
Season") turned out to be a best-seller.
In 1994 Camilleri published the first in a long series of novels:
La forma dell'Acqua (The Shape of Water) featured the
character of
Inspector Montalbano, a fractious Sicilian detective in the police
force of Vigàta, an imaginary Sicilian town. The series is written in
Italian but with a substantial sprinkling of
Sicilian phrases and grammar. The name Montalbano is an homage to
the Spanish writer
Manuel Vázquez Montalbán; the similarities between Montalban's
Pepe Carvalho and Camilleri's fictional detective are remarkable.
Both writers make great play of their protagonists' gastronomic
preferences.
This feature provides an interesting quirk which has become something
of a fad among his readership even in mainland Italy. The
TV adaptation of Montalbano's adventures, starring
Luca Zingaretti, further increased Camilleri's popularity to such a
point that in 2003 Camilleri's home town, Porto Empedocle - on which
Vigàta is modelled - took the extraordinary step of changing its
official name to that of Porto Empedocle Vigàta, no doubt with an eye to
capitalising on the tourism possibilities thrown up by the author's
work. On his website, Camilleri refers to the engaging and multi-faceted
character of Montalbano as a “serial killer of characters," meaning that
he has developed a life of his own and demands great attention from his
author, to the demise of other potential books and different personages.
Camilleri added that he writes a Montalbano novel every so often just so
that the character will be appeased and allow him to work on other
stories.
In 1998 Camilleri won the
Nino Martoglio International Book Award.
In 2012, Camilleri's
The Potters Field (translated by
Stephen Sartarelli) was announced as the winner of the 2012
Crime Writers' Association
International Dagger. The announcement was made on 5 July 2012 at
the awards ceremony held at One Birdcage Walk in
London.[2]
Camilleri now lives in
Rome where
he works as a TV and theatre director. About 10 million copies of his
novels have been sold to date and are becoming increasingly popular in
the UK (where
BBC
Four broadcast the Montalbano TV series from mid-2011),
Australia and North America.
In addition to the degree of popularity brought him by the novels, in
recent months Andrea Camilleri has become even more of a media icon
thanks to the parodies aired on an RAI radio show, where popular
comedian, TV host and impressionist
Fiorello presents him as a raspy voiced, caustic character, madly in
love with cigarettes and smoking, since in Italy, Camilleri is well
known for being a
heavy smoker of cigarettes.
He received a number of
honorary degrees from several Italian universities, among which the
IULM University of Milan (2002), the
University of Pisa (2005), the
University of L'Aquila (2007), the
University of Chieti (2007). In 2012 he received an honorary
Ph.D from the
Sapienza University of Rome.
He received an
honorary degree from UCD (University
College Dublin) on December 5, 2011.
Camilleri is an
atheist.[3]
Recognitions
Bibliography
Inspector
Montalbano
(excluding short stories)
-
The Shape of Water. Picador. 2003 [2002].
ISBN 978-0330492898.
(La forma dell’acqua — 1994)
-
The Terracotta Dog. Picador. 2004 [2002].
ISBN 978-0330492904.
(Il cane di terracotta — 1996)
-
The Snack Thief. Thorndike Press. 2004 [2003].
ISBN 978-1405630818.
(Il ladro di merendine — 1996)
-
The Voice of the Violin. Picador. 2005 [2003].
ISBN 978-0330492980.
(La voce del violino — 1997)
-
Excursion to Tindari. Picador. 2006 [2005].
ISBN 978-0330493024.
(La gita a Tindari — 2000)
-
The Scent of the Night. Picador. 2007 [2005].
ISBN 978-0330442176.
(L’odore della notte — 2001)
-
Rounding the Mark. Picador. 2007 [2006].
ISBN 978-0330442190.
(Il giro di boa — 2003)
-
The Patience of the Spider. Picador. 2008 [2007].
ISBN 978-0330442237.
(La pazienza del ragno — 2004)
-
The Paper Moon. Picador. 2008.
ISBN 978-0330457279.
(La luna di carta — 2005)
-
August Heat. Picador. 2009.
ISBN 978-0330457293.
(La vampa d'agosto — 2006)
-
The Wings of the Sphinx. Mantle. 2009.
ISBN 978-0330507646.
(Le ali della sfinge — 2006)
-
The Track of Sand. Mantle. 2011 [2010].
ISBN 978-0330507660.
(La pista di sabbia — 2007)
-
The Potter's Field. Mantle. 2012 [2011].
ISBN 978-1447203292.
(Il campo del vasaio — 2008)
-
The Age of Doubt. Mantle. 2012.
ISBN 978-1447203315.
(L'età del dubbio — 2008)
-
The Dance of the Seagull (it).
Mantle. 2013.
ISBN 978-1447228714.
(La danza del gabbiano — 2009)
- (La caccia al tesoro — 2010)
- (Il sorriso di Angelica — 2010)
- (Il gioco degli specchi — 2011)
- (Una lama di luce — 2012)
- (Una voce di notte — 2012)
Other
(including Montalbano's short stories)
References
External links