Andrea Camilleri

Andrea Camilleri (Porto Empedocle, Sicily, September 6, 1925 - Rome, July 17, 2019) is one of the most widely read contemporary Italian authors. He attended a bishop's college during World War II, from which he was expelled for disciplinary reasons. In 1944, he enrolled in the University in the Department of Literature but never obtained his degree. During the same period, he became a member of the Italian Communist Party and published his first short stories and poems. He studied directing at the Silvio d’Amico Academy of Dramatic Arts and worked as a theater director and screenwriter, as well as a television producer at RAI. He made his literary debut relatively late, in 1978, with the publication of the novel "The Course of Things," followed by the novel "Smoke Over the Horizon" in 1980, the first of his novels set in a fictional Sicilian town, Vigata. His series of detective novels featuring Inspector Montalbano (named in honor of the Spanish writer Manuel Vázquez Montalbán) became a unique publishing phenomenon in Italy, was translated into many languages abroad, and was adapted for television. In Greek, 47 of his books have been published: "The Shape of Water" (Patakis 1999), "The Season of Hunting" (Oceanida 1999), "The Terracotta Dog" (Patakis 2000), "The Course of Things" (Kastaniotis 2000), "The Snack Thief" (Patakis 2001), "The Voice of the Violin" (Patakis 2002), "The Scent of the Night" (Patakis 2003), "Montalbano’s First Case and Other Stories" (Patakis 2004), "Rounding the Mark" (Patakis 2005), "The Patience of the Spider" (Patakis 2006), "The Paper Moon" (Patakis 2007), "August Heat" (Patakis 2007), "The Wings of the Sphinx" (Patakis 2009), "The Track of Sand" (Patakis 2010), "The Potter’s Field" (Patakis 2011), "The Age of Doubt" (Patakis 2011), "The Dance of the Seagull" (Patakis 2012), "Treasure Hunt" (Patakis 2013), "Angelica’s Smile" (Patakis 2014), "Game of Mirrors" (Patakis 2015), "A Voice in the Night" (Patakis 2015), "A Beam of Light" (Patakis 2015), "The Pyramid of Mud" (Patakis 2016), "The Nest of Vipers" (Patakis 2016), "Death at Sea" (Patakis 2017), "The Other End of the Thread" (Patakis 2019), as well as his adaptation of Nikolai Gogol's work, "The Nose" (Patakis 2015). He also published essays on theater as well as a volume titled "Permanent Theaters in Italy (1898-1918)." He passed away in Rome on July 17, 2019, at the age of 93.