Let's talk about “Giallo”!

Stefano Tura in conversation
with Maurizio De Giovanni

Italian Cultural Institute

39 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8NX

Crime fiction is all the rage, seemingly immune to crisis and recession, and gaining new readers every day. Camilleri’s  Commissario Montalbano to mention just one, is now a household name on both sides of the Atlantic, with the eponymous TV series commanding peak audiences at every re-run….it’s even credited with a boost to tourism in Sicily!  Crime writers Maurizio De Giovanni and Stefano Tura will talk about the enduring success of this literary genre.

Stefano Tura,  journalist and writer, is London correspondent for RAI TV since 2006. After several years working for RAI as a reporter on current affairs in Italy, in 1999 he became a war correspondent from Kosovo, then Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan. He has written several thrillers, including Il killer delle ballerine, set in his home region of Emilia Romagna, Non spegnere la luce, Arriveranno I fiori del sangue (set in war-torn Kosovo), Delitti per le feste. He has also recounted his experiences in Afghanistan in Le caramelle di Super Osama – Viaggio a Kandahar di un inviato di Guerra. His latest book is Tu sei il prossimo (published by Fazi Editore). Maurizio De Giovanni lives and works in Naples. In 2005, he won a writing competition for unpublished authors with a short story set in the thirties and featuring Commissario Ricciardi, which was then turned into the first novel of the series. The Crocodile, another best-seller, marks the beginning of a new crime-series set in present-day Naples and featuring Inspector Lojacono.  His books have been successfully translated into French, Spanish and German, and are now available in English for the first time, published by Europa Editions. A television series is under way in Italy.  WEDNESDAY 26 NOVEMBER, 6.30pm Book Online at www.icilondon.esteri.it

Donna Leon in conversation with Maxim Jakubowski

Fans of crime writer Donna Leon will be pleased to hear that she will be in conversation with crime fiction commentator Maxim Jakubowski. The event is due to take place at the Italian Cultural Institute London, 39 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8NX on 29 March 2012 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm as part of the In Conversazione programme of events.

Donna Leon is the American born writer of the Commissario Guido Brunetti series set in Venice. The ninth Brunetti novel, Friends in High Places, won the Crime Writers Association Silver Dagger. German Television has produced 16 Commissario Brunetti mysteries for broadcast. The 21st novel in the series Beastly Things is due to be published in April 2012. Her books are constantly on the best sellers list.

Please contact the Italian Cultural Institute for further information.

Alessandro Perissinotto at the Italian Cultural Institute

(Left to right Karin (translator) Alessandro Perissinotto, Daniela De Gregorio, Michael G Jacob and Barry Forshaw) (Picture ©Ayo Onatade)

On Monday 7 February the Italian Cultural Institute in London played host to Italian author Alessandro Perissinotto (along with a translator) whose first novel in a trilogy Blood Sisters (Una Piccola Storia Ignobile) has recently been published by Hersilia Press. Perissinotto was interviewed by crime critic Barry Forshaw and was joined by author Michael Gregorio (Michael G Jacob and Daniela De Gregorio).

Born in 1964 Alessandro Perissinotto is a Professor at Turin University and also writes articles and comments on homicide for the Italian newspaper La Stampa. Perissinotto explained that the strict translation of the title from Italian to English would have been A Short Ignoble Story but that he had been impressed with the change of the title to Blood Sisters as it gave a sense of what the story is about. Perissinotto went on to say that he did not do much reading as a boy and that he had actually intended to become a mechanic for Fiat. When asked if he read any other Italian authors he explained that he did enjoy reading Andrea Camilleri but that he found that Camilleri wrote too fast for him to keep up with. The fascination with translation of Scandinavian novels was also raised with the question being why had Italian novels not been caught up with the trend especially since there were a number of good Italian crime writers around. Perissinotto thought that commercial success did not always equal literary success. He went on to explain that in Italy there was a desire to write novels that talked about reality and they appeared to have achieved quite a lot of success with this. There had also been a change in the way that crime novels were now seen in Italy. Before they had been looked down on but this had now changed.

The author also explained that the idea of lies and truth were very important in the story. The follow-up to Blood Sisters is L'ultima notte bianca (but not yet published) is also about someone that disappears.

Alessandro Perissinotto was also asked how many of his novels were taken from real events and he explained that he had been unable to write about a number of them in the newspaper and that some of his stories did have a background in reality. Alessandro Perissinotto also admitted that there was a strong regional bias when it came to thrillers and crime novels because they were about the area.

Michael Gregorio were also asked how did they manage to come up with their name and they explained that it came about after a three way discussion with their editors in the UK and in the US. They also explained that they had found the first book a bit intimidating to write. They also explained how they split the writing duties. They worked a lot on the plot outline and then decided who would write which chapter. They knew each other’s weaknesses so it was fairly easy for them to write this way.

Also present was Howard Curtis who translated Blood Sisters.