Niccolò Ammaniti

Claudio Mazzola (University of Washington)

Ed. by Jo Ann Cavallo, Columbia University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.6.1: Italian Writing and Culture, 453-present.
Vol. editors: Carla Bregman (Independent Scholar - North America), Jo Ann Cavallo (Columbia University)

Dates

Born 25 Sep 1966
Activity 1994-ongoing

Places

Born in Italy
Active in Italy

Activities

Primary

Prose writer

Resources

Ammaniti's Works

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Born in Rome in 1966, Niccolò Ammaniti became internationally known for his 2003 novel

Io non ho paura

[I’m Not Scared]. He made his literary debut almost a decade earlier when he wrote

Branchie

[Gills] (1994). There are numerous anecdotes about how Ammaniti became a writer almost by chance. His lack of interest in finishing his degree in biology led him to write

Branchie

rather than complete his dissertation. His first novel is characterized by a rather bizarre plot. The protagonist is a terminally ill young man (a fish-breeder) who, after having rejected any cure for his disease, accepts the strange invitation of an old lady to build an aquarium in India. From this rather peculiar pretext the novel moves to an even stranger central part. While in India the protagonist is first…

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2031 words

Citation: Mazzola, Claudio. "Niccolò Ammaniti". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 September 2022 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=14778, accessed 21 November 2024.]