Gianrico Carofiglio
Honorary President Edinburgh Gadda Prize
Gianrico Carofiglio is a world-famous crime novelist, winner of several international prizes for literature, magistrate and anti-Mafia campaigner of high reputation. Born in Bari in 1961, his first novel (Testimone inconsapevole) appeared in 2002 and was an instant bestseller. It was translated into English as Involuntary Witness in 2005, followed by the novels A Walk in the Dark (2006) and Reasonable Doubts (2007). The filming in 2004 of these first two and their broadcast on Italian television has helped to make the character of Guido Guerrieri a household name in Italy.
In 2004 he wrote Il passato è una terra straniera (The Past is a Foreign Country) which received the Bancarella Award and became an internationally acclaimed feature film in 2008, receiving the Best Film and Best Actor (for Michele Rondino) at the Miami Film Festival. 2007 saw the publication of the graphic novel, Cacciatori nelle tenebre, which won the Martoglio Award for Carofiglio and his co-author, his brother Francesco.
Carofiglio has continued to publish novels to critical acclaim and public enthusiasm. In 2008 Né qui né altrove was published by Laterza: the first time in over 100 years the academic publishing house had added a novel to its catalogue. In 2009 came the dialogue Il paradosso del poliziotto and 2010 saw the continued success of the character of Guido Guerrieri in Le perfezioni provvisorie.
His work as a novelist is influenced by his work as a magistrate, and his involvement in anti-Mafia proceedings, trials and investigations have seen him appointed to the anti-Mafia committee of the Italian Parliament and elected to the Italian upper house as a Senator for the Democratic Party. He is considered a specialist in investigation techniques regarding organized crime and an expert in psychology as applied to investigation. He has written and published several articles and essays in this specific field.
Gianrico Carofiglio lives in Bari with his wife and two children.
