Camilleri, Andrea 1925-

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Camilleri, Andrea 1925-

PERSONAL:

Born September 6, 1925, in Porto Empedocle, Sicily, Italy; son of a coast guard employee; married; wife's name Rosetta; children: three daughters.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Rome, Italy.

CAREER:

Writer, director, and educator. Theatrical director, beginning 1942, including productions by Pirandello, Beckett, Ionesco, and Adamov; director of television series. Teacher at schools and universities in Italy, including the Center of Cinematography, Rome, and the National Academy of Dramatic Arts, Rome, Italy.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Premio St. Vincent; Premio Racalmare, 2003.

WRITINGS:

I teatri stabili in Italia (1898-1918), Cappelli (Bologna, Italy), 1959.

Il córso delle cose (title means "The Course of Things"), Lalli (Poggibonsi, Italy), 1978, revised edition, Sellerio (Palermo, Italy), 1998.

Un filo di fumo (title means "A Thread of Smoke"), Sellerio (Palermo, Italy), 1980.

La stagione della caccia (title means "The Season of the Destroyer"), Sellerio (Palermo, Italy), 1992.

La bolla di compodenda, Sellerio (Palermo, Italy), 1993.

La forma del acqua, Sellerio (Palermo, Italy), 1994, translated by Stephen Sartarelli as The Shape of Water, Viking (New York, NY), 2002.

Il gioco della mosca, Sellerio (Palermo, Italy), 1995.

Il birraio di Preston (short stories; title means "The Brewer of Preson"), Sellerio (Palermo, Italy), 1995.

Il ladro di merendine, Sellerio (Palermo, Italy), 1996, translated by Stephen Sartarelli as The Snack Thief, Viking (New York, NY), 2003.

Il cane di terracotta, Sellerio (Palermo, Italy), 1996, translated by Stephen Sartarelli as The Terra-cotta Dog, Viking (New York, NY), 2002.

La voce del violino, Sellerio (Palermo, Italy), 1997, translated by Stephen Sartarelli as Voice of the Violin, Viking (New York, NY), 2003.

La strage dimenticata, Sellerio (Palermo, Italy), 1997.

Un mese con Montalbano (short stories; title means "A Year with Montalbano"), Mondadori (Milan, Italy), 1998.

Gli arancini di Montalbano (short stories), Mondadori (Milan, Italy), 1999.

La mossa del cavallo (title means "Knight's Move"), Rizzoli (Milan, Italy), 1999.

(With Giuseppe Dipasquale) La concessione del telefono (title means "The Admission on the Telephone"), Sellerio (Palermo, Italy), 1999, published as La concessione del telefono: Versione teatrale dell'omonimo romanzo di Andrea Camilleri e Giuseppe Dipasquale (with Giuseppe Dipasquale), Lombardi (Siracusa, Italy), 2005.

Marcello Sorgi, editor, La testa ci fa dire: Dialogo con Andrea Camilleri (interviews), Sellerio (Palermo, Italy), 2000.

La scomparsa di Patò (title means "The Passing of Patò"), Mondadori (Milan, Italy), 2000.

Favole del tramonto, Altana (Rome, Italy), 2000.

Biografia di un figlio cambiato, Rizzoli (Milan, Italy), 2000.

(Contributor) Francesco Messina: 100 anni; Sculture e disegni, 1924-1993, Galileo Galilei (Rome, Italy), 2000.

La gita a Tindari (title means "The Trip to Tindari"), Sellerio (Palermo, Italy), 2000, translated by Stephen Sartarelli as Excursion to Tindari, Penguin Books (New York, NY), 2005.

Il re de Girgenti, 4th edition, Sellerio (Palermo, Italy), 2001.

Gocce di Sicilia (essays), Altana (Rome, Italy), 2001.

Le parole raccontate: Piccolo dizionario dei termini teatrali, edited by Roberto Scarpa, Rizzoli (Milan, Italy), 2001.

L'odore della notte, Sellerio (Palermo, Italy), 2001, translated by Stephen Sartarelli as The Smell of the Night, Penguin Books (New York, NY), 2005.

Racconti quotidiani, Libreria dell'Orso (Pistoia, Italy), 2001.

La paura di Montalbano (short stories; title means "The Fear of Montalbano"), Mondadori (Milan, Italy), 2002.

La linea della palma: Saverio Lodato fa raccontare Andrea Camilleri (interview), Rizzoli (Milan, Italy), 2002.

Le inchisete del commissario Collura, Libreria dell'Orso (Pistoia, Italy), 2002.

Montalbano a viva voce, Mondadori (Milan, Italy), 2002.

L'ombrello di noé, Rizzoli (Milan, Italy), 2002.

Storie di Montalbano, A. Mondadori (Milan, Italy), 2002.

La presa di Macallé, Sellerio (Palermo, Italy), 2003.

Il giro di boa, Sellerio (Palermo, Italy), 2003, translated by Stephen Sartarelli as Rounding the Mark, Penguin Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Teatro (plays), Lombardi (Siracusa, Italy), 2003.

La pazienza del ragno, Sellerio (Palermo, Italy), 2004, translated by Stephen Sartarelli as The Patience of the Spider, Penguin Books (New York, NY), 2007.

La prima indagine di Montalbano, Mondadori (Milan, Italy), 2004.

Romanzi storici e civili, A. Mondadori (Milan, Italy), 2004.

(Author of preface) La protezione negata: Primo rapporto sul diritto di asilo in Italia, Feltrinelli (Milan, Italy), 2005.

(With Jacques Cazotte) Il diavolo: Tentatore, innamorato, (Rome, Italy), 2005.

La luna di carta, Sellerio (Palermo, Italy), 2005.

Il medaglione, Oscar Mondadori (Milan, Italy), 2005.

Privo di titolo, Sellerio (Palermo, Italy), 2005.

Le ali della sfinge, Sellerio (Palermo, Italy), 2006.

La pensione Eva: Romanzo, Mondadori (Milan, Italy), 2006.

Vi racconto Montalbano: Interviste, Datanews (Rome, Italy), 2006.

Il colore del sole, Mondadori (Milan, Italy), 2007.

Le pecore e il pastore, Sellerio (Palermo, Italy), 2007.

La pista di sabbia, Sellerio (Palermo, Italy), 2007.

Author of radio and television plays, including adaptations of books by Georges Simenon. Contributor to books, including Commissario Montalbano: Indagine su un successo, Zona, 2004. Contributor to periodicals, including Almanacco dell'Altana. Author's books have been translated into German, English, French, Turkish, and Japanese.

ADAPTATIONS:

Camilleri's "Montalbano" novels were adapted for Italian television, broadcast as Montalbano Commissario; The Passing of Patò was adapted for film and directed by Rocco Mortelliti; other novels by Camilleri were adapted for television production.

SIDELIGHTS:

Sicilian author Andrea Camilleri worked as a director of films, stage, and television before concentrating on his second career as a novelist. Publishing his first work of fiction in 1978, Camilleri introduced the character that would propel him into the best-seller ranks with his 1994 novel, The Shape of Water. Translated for English-speaking readers shortly after its publication in Italian, The Shape of Water introduces Inspector Salvo Montalbano, a Sicilian cop fighting middle age who injects his constant verbal interchanges with the local Mafia of the small town of Vigàta with humor and pointed sarcasm. "In a Camilleri novel character development and mood are almost as important as plot," explained Best of Sicily Web site contributor Michele Parisi. "Details are important, and they may well reflect the cerebral rumblings of an introspective genius." Noting that Camilleri's novels featuring Sicilian Police Commissioner Salvo Montalbano have sold millions of copies worldwide in translation, Parisi added that "Only one who knows the fabric of Sicilian society so intimately could weave such tales so seamlessly, in the process earning himself a special place in the rich tapestry of contemporary Sicilian literature."

Beginning his career in the theater, Camilleri moved to Rome in 1949 and brought the works of such playwrights as Samuel Beckett, Luigi Pirandello, and Eugene Ionesco to the stage. In addition, he taught at Rome's National Academy of Dramatic Arts for almost a quarter century. Focusing his writing talent on poetry and adapting the novels of others for radio and television, Camilleri "prized poetry over commercial fiction," according to New York Times contributor Frank Bruni, "and, when he finally got around to novels, infused them with so much Sicilian dialect that the publishers of his pre-Montalbano books insisted on glossaries in the back." The "Montalbano" crime novels began as a whim to see if he could pen a long, structured work of fiction. As Camilleri explained to Bruni, the mystery novel is "a marvelous cage. Everything has to follow a certain logic. Everything has to be in a certain place." The "marvelous cage" eventually found a publisher, and La forma del acqua was published by Sellerio in 1994.

La forma del acqua, translated into English as The Shape of Water, finds Inspector Montalbano confronting a lineup of an odd sort: a pimp, a murderer, and a dead politician whose corpse is found in the town dump. When the trail leads the portly gourmand Montalbano to organized crime, the inspector must upset the traditional balance of power between the Church, press, local politicians, and the Mafia in a novel New York Times Book Review contributor Marilyn Stasio dubbed "savagely funny." Commenting on The Shape of Water in Booklist, reviewer Bill Ott praised the policeman protagonist, noting that Camilleri "captures that special blend of lethargy, cynicism, and reluctant commitment that drives the best fictional Italian cops." The second "Montalbano" novel to make it into English translation, 2002's The Terra-cotta Dog causes the police inspector to bring all these characteristics into play when he is confronted with a moral dilemma: whether to take local crime boss Gaetano "The Greek" Bennici into police custody so that the Mafia bigwig can benefit from the city's medical care. If this problem isn't enough, an illegal arms deal, a World War II-era murder, and a supermarket robbery quickly demand his attention. "Montalbano's deadpan drollery and sharp observations refresh as much for their honesty as their wit," commented a Kirkus Reviews contributor of The Terra-cotta Dog, while in Booklist GraceAnne A. DeCandido noted that the character of Montalbano personifies "the Sicilian temperament, with all its complex darkness and ambiguity."

Written with Camilleri's characteristic mix of Sicilian and Italian, La gita a Tindari opens as Montalbano is confronting his fiftieth year, a waning libido, and thinning hair, not to mention a murdered pimp and a crime syndicate that turns out to be nothing more than fiction. Praising the author for his "extremely creative—and often very funny—use of words," World Literature Today contributor Charles Klopp added another reason to enjoy La gita a Tindari: "the clash between such traditional themes in Sicilian literature as death and sex, vendettas and the family, hatred and looniness, and a new social and economic context of cell phones, computers, home-made porn videos, the Internet, organ transplants, and the international art market," all of which collide on the streets of Montalbano's Vigàta.

Il ladro di merendine, translated as The Snack Thief, revolves around a murder in an elevator. The dead retiree had a housekeeper who also worked as a prostitute and who had a son. "The Snack Thief" of the title, the woman's son is eventually found and turns a simple case of murder into something more complex. "Montalbano, blessedly, is as bitingly humorous as ever," wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor. A Publishers Weekly reviewer noted that the author "displays all the storytelling skills that have made him an international bestseller."

In Voice of the Violin, or La voce del violino, Montalbano finds a woman's naked dead body after breaking into a home unauthorized. Among the suspects are the woman's husband, lover, and a mentally challenged man who may have stalked the woman. "Through this deft translation, Camilleri's tale of lust, greed and hidden beauty should win new American readers," wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor.

The Smell of the Night, published in Italy as L'odore della notte, finds Montalbano searching for two financiers who have disappeared after swindling several investors. "As in previous novels, Camilleri's inimitable style emerges," wrote Domencio Maceri in World Literature Today. "Weaving Italian and Sicilian expressions in both the dialogue and to a lesser extent in the descriptions, readers keep quickly turning pages to find the answers." A Publishers Weekly contributor noted the novel's "intricate plot and … large cast of memorable characters."

Il giro di boa, translated as Rounding the Mark, focuses on the murder of a boy who may have been a victim of human traffickers. A Publishers Weekly contributor called the mystery "far from a run-of-the-mill police procedural." The Patience of the Spider, or La pazienza del ragno, features Montalbano, who is recuperating from a gunshot wound, looking into the kidnapping of a university student. A Publishers Weekly contributor noted the novel's "witty writing and acerbic protagonist."

The fictional Vigàta, a town modeled on Porto Empedocle, where Camilleri was born and raised, proves the setting for several of the author's non-Montalbano novels, among them Un filo di fumo and La mossa del cavallo. Camilleri has also authored several collections of short fiction, some featuring Inspector Montalbano, and others based on historical incidents. In Il birraio di Preston he takes readers back in time to the 1860s and shows how one Sicilian town reacted to falling under the dominion of Italy. In twenty-four loosely connected tales, he fictionalizes the events reported in a contemporary government study that found the residents of the small town of Caltanissetta in an uproar because they were forced to witness a production of Luigi Ricci's opera Il birraio di Preston. Tracing the incident from the stage to the rioting and deaths that resulted—not to mention the torching of the opera house—Camilleri "develops this tantalizing anecdote into a rich village comedy," noted Times Literary Supplement contributor Masolino D'Amico.

Privo di titolo gives a fictionalized account of the real-life political murder of a student in 1921 fascist Italy. In the novel, the murder is being reinvestigated as the story moves back and forth in time. "As a keen observer of the grotesquely opportunistic nature of his countrymen, apparently due to centuries of repressive foreign governments, Andrea Camilleri portrays with great irony many of them as masters of adaptation and deception for whom the fine line between good and evil is often blurred," wrote Maria Luise Caputo-Mayr in World Literature Today.

In addition to his fiction, Camilleri has written numerous other works, including a biography of playwright Luigi Pirandello titled Biografia di un figlio cambiato.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Capecchi, Giovanni, Andrea Camilleri, Cadmo (Florence, Italy), 2000.

Lodato, Saverio, La linea della palma: Saverio Lodato fa raccontare Andrea Camilleri (interview), Rizzoli (Milan, Italy), 2002.

Sorgi, Marcello, editor, La testa ci fa dire: Dialogo con Andrea Camilleri (interviews), Sellerio (Palermo, Italy), 2000.

PERIODICALS

Book, May, 2003, review of The Snack Thief, p. 60; July, 2003, review of The Snack Thief, p. 21; November-December, 2003, Anna Weinberg, "Never Go up against a Sicilian," p. 28.

Booklist, October 15, 1998, review of La voce del violino, p. 408; April 1, 2002, Bill Ott, review of The Shape of Water, p. 1308; October 15, 2002, GraceAnne A. DeCandido, review of The Terra-cotta Dog, p. 391; May 1, 2003, Bill Ott, review of The Snack Thief, p. 1536; October 1, 2003, Bill Ott, review of Voice of the Violin, p. 302; December 1, 2005, Bill Ott, review of The Smell of the Night, p. 27; August 1, 2006, Bill Ott, review of Rounding the Mark, p. 48.

Book World, August 20, 2006, Richard Lipez, "Mysteries: Human Traffic," p. 13.

Economist, July 17, 1999, review of La mossa del cavallo, p. 14; September 23, 2000, review of La gita a Tindari, p. 159.

Europe, October, 1998, Niccolo d'Aquino, "Successful Sicilian Storyteller," p. 38.

Guardian (London, England), October 14, 2006, Paul Bailey, "The Sage of Sicily."

Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2002, review of The Shape of Water, p. 454; October 1, 2002, review of The Terra-cotta Dog, p. 1427; March 15, 2003, review of The Snack Thief, p. 428; September 15, 2003, review of Voice of the Violin, p. 1155; December 1, 2004, review of Excursion to Tindari, p. 1118.

Library Journal, April 15, 2003, Wilda Williams, review of The Snack Thief, p. 130; October 1, 2003, Rex Klett, review of Voice of the Violin, p. 120.

Los Angeles Times, May 26, 2002, Mark Rozzo, "Fast Fiction," p. R14.

New York Times, October 12, 2002, Frank Bruni, "A Writer Who Followed His Own Clues to Fame," p. A4.

New York Times Book Review, June 23, 2002, Marilyn Stasio, review of The Shape of Water, p. 18.

Publishers Weekly, April 1, 2002, review of The Shape of Water, p. 56; March 31, 2003, review of The Snack Thief, p. 46; October 27, 2003, review of Voice of the Violin, p. 46; October 24, 2005, review of The Smell of the Night, p. 42; June 5, 2006, review of Rounding the Mark, p. 41; March 26, 2007, review of The Patience of the Spider, p. 70.

Times Literary Supplement, July 19, 1996, Masolino D'Amico, review of Il birraio di Preston, p. 13; January 19, 2007, Sheila Hale, "Autumn in Vigata," p. 20.

World Literature Today, autumn, 1981, M.L. Caputo-Mayr, review of Un filo di fumo, pp. 655-656; summer-autumn, 2001, Charles Klopp, review of La gita a Tindari, p. 201; summer-autumn, 2002, Domenico Maceri, review of L'odore della notte, p. 136; March-April, 2006, Maria Luise Caputo-Mayr, review of Privo di titolo, p. 54.