Andrea Camilleri’s Followers (2,182)

Andrea Camilleri

Born

in Porto Empedocle, Italy

September 06, 1925

Died

July 17, 2019

Website

http://www.vigata.org

Genre

Mystery, Literary Fiction, Suspense & Thriller

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Andrea Camilleri (born september 6, 1925 in Porto Empedocle) was an Italian writer. He is considered one of the greatest Italian writers of both 20th and 21st centuries.

Originally from Porto Empedocle, Sicily, 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 stage and film direction at the Silvio D'Amico Academy of Dramatic Arts, 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 o Andrea Camilleri (born september 6, 1925 in Porto Empedocle) was an Italian writer. He is considered one of the greatest Italian writers of both 20th and 21st centuries.

Originally from Porto Empedocle, Sicily, 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 stage and film direction at the Silvio D'Amico Academy of Dramatic Arts, 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 Movie 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 the perfectly-cast 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 denomination to that of Porto Empedocle Vigàta, no doubt with an eye to capitalising on the tourism possibilities thrown up by the author's work.

In 1998 Camilleri won the Nino Martoglio International Book Award.

Camilleri lived in Rome where he worked 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 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 impression artist Fiorello presents him as a raspy voiced, caustic character, madly in love with cigarettes and smoking (Camilleri is well-known for his love of tobacco).

He received an honorary degree from University of Pisa in 2005.

...more

Combine Editions
Andrea Camilleri’s books

Average rating: 3.92 · 192,441 ratings · 15,664 reviews · 440 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Shape of Water (Inspector Montalbano, #1) by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli (Translator) 3.75 avg rating — 20,662 ratings — published 1994 — 127 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Terra-Cotta Dog (Inspector Montalbano, #2) 3.94 avg rating — 11,933 ratings — published 1996 — 113 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Snack Thief (Inspector Montalbano, #3) by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli (Translator) 4.07 avg rating — 9,005 ratings — published 1996 — 107 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Voice of the Violin (Inspector Montalbano, #4) by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli (Translator) 4.05 avg rating — 8,744 ratings — published 1997 — 20 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Excursion to Tindari (Inspector Montalbano #5) by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli (Translator) 4.05 avg rating — 7,481 ratings — published 2000 — 34 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Smell of the Night (Inspector Montalbano, #6) by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli (Translator) 4.02 avg rating — 6,405 ratings — published 2001 — 77 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Rounding the Mark (Inspector Montalbano, #7) by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli 4.09 avg rating — 5,932 ratings — published 2003 — 68 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Patience of the Spider (Inspector Montalbano, #8) by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli (Translator) 4.04 avg rating — 5,864 ratings — published 2004 — 34 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	August Heat (Inspector Montalbano #10) by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli (Translator) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 5,909 ratings — published 2006 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Paper Moon (Inspector Montalbano, #9) by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli (Translator) 4.01 avg rating — 5,818 ratings — published 2005 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Andrea Camilleri…

Series by Andrea Camilleri

Inspector Montalbano (28 books)
by

Andrea Camilleri,

Stephen Sartarelli

3.95 avg rating — 163,392 ratings

Trilogía mítica (3 books)
by

Andrea Camilleri

3.91 avg rating — 1,118 ratings

Quotes by Andrea Camilleri (?)

“Montalbano felt moved. This was real friendship, Sicilian friendship, the kind based on intuition, on what was left unsaid. With a true friend, one never needs to ask, because the other understands on his own accordingly.”
― Andrea Camilleri, The Snack Thief

26 likes

“The memory of the aged becomes clearer and clearer with time. It has no pity.”
― Andrea Camilleri, The Terra-Cotta Dog

tags: haunting, memory

18 likes

“What do two women friends usually do when they see each other? We talked, we watched television, we listened to music Sometimes we did nothing at all. It was a pleasure just to know the other one was there.”
― Andrea Camilleri, Voice of the Violin

tags: friendship

14 likes

See all Andrea Camilleri's quotes »

Polls

December 2020 Mystery by Location (Italy) Poll

We ask that you only vote if you are planning on participating in our discussion should your choice win.

Which Italian Mystery selection would you like to read in December?

The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri

11 votes, 57.9%

A Season for the Dead by David Hewson

8 votes, 42.1%

19 total votes

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