Luigi Malerba

Luigi Malerba (11 November 1927 – 8 May 2008), born Luigi Bonardi, was an Italian author of short stories, historical novels, and screenplays. He has been part of the Neoavanguardia and co-founded Gruppo 63, a literary movement inspired by Marxism and Structuralism. Some of his most famous novels are La scoperta dell'alfabeto, The serpent, What Is This Buzzing, Do You Hear It Too?, Dopo il pescecane, Testa d'argento, Il fuoco greco, Le pietre volanti, Roman ghosts and Ithaca Forever: Penelope speaks. He wrote several stories and novels for kids, some of them in collaboration with Tonino Guerra.

He was the first writer to win the Prix Médicis étranger in 1970. He was awarded the Brancati Prize in 1979, the Mondello Prize in 1987, the Grinzane Cavour Prize in 1989 (with Stefano Jacomuzzi and Raffaele La Capria), the Viareggio Prize in 1992, the Flaiano Prize in 1990 and the Feronia-Città di Fiano Prize in 1992. His name popped up among the candidates to the Nobel prize for literature in 2000.