Andrea Camilleri. Una storia

Andrea Camilleri was many things, so many that it was difficult to fit them all into one person. The story of his “delayed destiny”, as he himself called it, is well known: his explosion onto the scene as a writer at almost seventy years of age, with Inspector Montalbano and unprecedented popularity. But Camilleri was not just that, or rather, his success began long before, and it can be said that every fragment of his long life was destined to converge in the figure that Italian readers came to love so much. There is therefore a more complex story, full of surprises: events that even a novelist could not have imagined as they happened. It is the story of a Sicilian child who sneaks into his parents’ attic and finds Simenon’s detective novels stored in a jute sack. Of a reckless student who becomes a theatre director and nurtures important actors. Of a young intellectual who joins Rai and produces some of the most iconic programmes in the history of radio and television. It is the story of a multifaceted artist who, from behind the scenes, contributes to the greatness of Italian popular culture. And it is the story of a man who, through stubbornness and a bit of luck, meets a myriad of legendary characters along the way: from Pirandello to General Patton, from Robert Capa to the bandit Giuliano’s gang, from Pope John XXIII to Pier Paolo Pasolini, from Leonardo Sciascia to Elvira Sellerio. With his gift for storytelling and his panoramic view, Luca Crovi reconstructs the mosaic of a boundless, exuberant and ironic man, doing justice to the inexhaustible energy that Andrea Camilleri has devoted to art throughout his entire life.