A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z
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Life and Works: Camilleri was born in 1925 in Porto Empedocle, in Agrigento Province, in Sicily. Andrea Camilleri is a director, author of scripts for theatre and television, as well as one of the most famous Italian contemporary writers. Camilleri began studies at the Faculty of Literature in 1944, without concluding them, meanwhile publishing poems and short stories. Around this time he joined the Italian Communist Party. From 1948 to 1950 Camilleri studied film direction at the Silvio D'Amico Academy of Dramatic Arts, starting to take on work as director and screenwriter. He is especially well known for the most famous crime television productions featuring Lieutenant Sheridan and Inspector Maigret. But perhaps his first and only meeting with Pirandello sometime between 1932 and 1933 was a portent that no one at the time knew how to interpret: Pirandello, a friend of the family, was incidentally also one of his mother's nephews. Nonetheless, young Camilleri, who grew up during the war years, showed no particular signs of being predestined for a writing career. In 1977 he returned to the Academy of Dramatic Arts, holding the chair of Movie Direction, and occupying it for 20 years. His first book, Il Corso delle Cose was not published until 1978. Even when he published his second book, Un filo di fumo, in the year 1980, no one would have been so rash as to apostrophize him as a future best-selling author with several million copies in print. It took another 15 years to reach that point. In 1992, after a long pause of 12 years, Camilleri once more took up novel-writing. A new book, La Stagione della Caccia turned out to be a best-seller. His hour finally came when he turned away from writing historical novels, to crime fiction. In 1994 Camilleri published the first in a long series of novels: The Shape of Water (La forma dell'Acqua) featured the character of detective Salvo Montalbano, who lives in Sicily and solves his cases in the imaginary town of Vigàta, where he struggles with the corrupt and self-serving hierarchy in the law-keeping organisation. Detective Montalbano is a gourmet – above all, he loves seafood in all its variations. Camilleri has created a character as food-loving as Donna Leon's Inspector Brunetitbus, and as ascerbic and self-assured as Michael Dibdin's Aurelio Zen. In fact, I am left wondering if Zen ever came across Montalbano, when he was despatched to Sicily in the seventh Zen book, 'Blood Rain'. The text is spare and fast-paced, but still full of characterisation – Camilleri gives the reader just enough to flesh out Montalbano and his protagonists, but no more than is necessary. Montalbano has a deep-seated aversion to flying and solves his cases using his instincts and an ability to practically become one with his surroundings and delve into the murderer's soul. Its first print run of 100,000 copies was sold out after just a few days; another 80,000 copies were hastily printed, and it became clear that yet another 20,000 would have to be printed: all this in just 5 days. An absolute record even for an Italian author who sometimes has up to 6 titles in the weekly best-seller lists! Andrea Camilleri has sold more than 2.5 million books since 1998: excellent business for him and his Sicilian publisher Elvira Sellerio. His success is impervious even to the at times harsh critical reviews of his new book. His style is very particular as he mixes Italian and local dialect without however making it unreadable for those who are not from that part of Italy. Camilleri has won numerous homestigious literary awards in Italy as well as in France. His Montalbano series has been adapted for Italian television and translated into German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Japanese, Dutch, Swedish, and finally, English. Andrea Camilleri is married with three children and four grandchildren, and lives in Rome where he works as a TV and theatre director. He received an honorary degree from University of Pisa in 2005. |
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