A look back at the life of Andrea Camilleri, the man behind the Inspector Montalbano series
Andrea Camilleri, the renowned Sicilian author best known for his Inspector Moltalbano series, has sadly passed away at the age of 93 after going into cardiac arrest. In celebrating his life, we’re taking a look back at his work and achievements over the years.
Born in 1925, Andrea Camilleri, while often confused by us Maltese as being a local, is one of Italy’s most popular crime authors. He first wrote a handful of historical novels, but rose to incredible fame in 1994 at the age of nearly 70 when he wrote The Shape of Water, the first book starring the famous Sicilian detective.
Camilleri has since written 23 novels starring the clumsy detective that sold over 30 million copies around the world and has been translated into 32 languages. The Potter’s Field, translated into English by Stephen Sartarelli, won Camilleri the International Dagger, the highest foreign honour of the British Crime Writers Association.
The Montalbano series was such a hit that it was also turned into a TV series screened in over 65 countries, bringing busloads of tourists to the Italian island as a result. And get this! Camilleri’s hometown of Porto Empedocle, where the fictional town of Vigata is based, is so proud of the connection that it officially changed its name to Porto Empedocle Vigata in 2003.
Camilleri published the 30th and final book of the series in 2018 but this had been written 13 years ago and had been kept by his publisher for safekeeping. “When I get fed up with him or am not able to write any more, I’ll tell the publisher: publish that book,” he had said in 2012. And that time came in 2018.
Andrea Camilleri’s memory will live on in the hearts of all those readers he touched.