Stephen Sartarelli - translator.
'Sly and witty' Observer
The smells, colours and landscapes of Sicily come to life'
Guardian
Andrea Camilleri is one of Italy's most famous contemporary
writers, a publishing sensation in Italy and abroad. His Sicilian
crime series stars his urbane and earthy police inspector Salvo
Montalbano. So popular are Camilleri's books that the mayor of
Camilleri's birthplace added 'Vigata', the fictionalised town where
the gritty mysteries are set, to the name of his home town. The
books have sold in there millions in Europe and have monopolized
Italy's best-seller list since debuting in 1994. Picador are thrilled to
be publishing the entire Camilleri series, the second of these to
come in February is The Terracotta Dog. Inspector Montalbano is
described by Maxim Jakubowski as 'a cross between Columbo and
Chandler's Philip Marlow, with the culinary idiosyncrasies of an
Italian Maigret.’
The Terracotta Dog opens with a mysterious tete-a-tete with a
mafioso, some inexplicably abandoned loot from a supermarket
heist, and some dying words that lead Inspector Montalbano to a
secret grotto in a mountain cave where two young lovers, dead fitty
years and still embracing, are watched over by a life-size terracotta
dog.
Montalbano's passion to solve this old crime takes him, heedless of
personal danger, on a journey through the island's past and into a
family's dark heart amid the horrors of World War II.
With sly wit and a keen understanding of human nature,
Montalbano is a detective whose earthiness, compassion and
intelligence make him totally irresistible.
The Montalbano series have been translated into nine languages
and have been best-sellers both in Italy and Germany. Andrea
Camilleri lives in Rome.
Stephen Sartarelli is a poet and translator. He lives in New York.
Trezza Azzopardi
Remember Me
Andrea Camilleri
See Review by
Bob Cornwell
