A short life of the author
Andrea Camilleri (1925–2019) was born on 6 September 1925 in Porto Empedocle, Sicily. He studied at the Accademia d’Arte Drammatica in Rome and worked for decades as a television and theatre director for RAI (Italian state television). He did not publish his first novel until 1978 and did not achieve fame until his seventies.
Life and Career
The Shape of Water (La forma dell’acqua, 1994) — in which Inspector Salvo Montalbano investigates the death of a politician found in a compromising position in a lover’s lane — launched the series. Montalbano is a middle-aged Sicilian police inspector who loves food, the sea, and his long-distance girlfriend Livia. The novels blend mystery plotting with food writing (Montalbano’s meals are described in loving detail), social observation, political satire, and a distinctive linguistic texture — Camilleri writes in a mixture of Italian, Sicilian dialect, and invented words.
The series ran to over thirty novels, averaging two per year, and sold over 30 million copies. The RAI television adaptation (1999–2021), starring Luca Zingaretti as Montalbano, ran for fifteen seasons and was broadcast in over sixty countries.
Riccardino (2020, published posthumously) — the final Montalbano novel, which Camilleri wrote years earlier and sealed with instructions for posthumous publication — concluded the series.
Camilleri died on 17 July 2019 in Rome, at age ninety-three.
Major Works and Themes
Camilleri wrote about Sicily — its beauty, corruption, food, warmth, and entanglement with organised crime and political power. His Montalbano novels are comfort reading with teeth: warm, funny, and politically alert.
Key Works
- The Shape of Water (1994)
- The Terracotta Dog (1996)
- The Patience of the Spider (2004)
Collecting Camilleri
Italian-language editions are the true firsts. English translations (Penguin, translated by Stephen Sartarelli) bring $10–$30.