Carlo Fruttero (19 September 1926 – 15 January 2012) was an Italian writer, journalist, translator and editor of anthologies.
Fruttero was born in
Turin
Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...
, Italy. He is mostly known for his joint work with
Franco Lucentini
Franco Lucentini (; 24 December 1920 – 5 August 2002) was an Italian writer, journalist, translator
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The En ...
, especially as authors of crime novels. The duo were also editors of the science-fiction series ''
Urania
Urania ( ; ; modern Greek shortened name ''Ránia''; meaning "heavenly" or "of heaven") was, in Greek mythology, the muse of astronomy and astrology. Urania is the goddess of astronomy and stars, her attributes being the globe and compass.
T ...
'' from the 1960s to the 1980s, and of the comic-strip magazine ''
Il Mago''.
Fruttero died in
Roccamare,
Castiglione della Pescaia, in 2012, aged 85.
Bibliography
* ''Volti a perdere'' (1999)
* ''Visibilità zero'' (1999; bylined as "Fruttero & Fruttero" – playing on the usual "Fruttero & Lucentini" – tells with more humour than satire the story of the imaginary member of parliament Aldo Slucca)
* ''Donne informate sui fatti'' (2006)
* ''Ti trovo un po' pallida'' (2007; see below, under the joint works with Lucentini)
* ''Mutandine di chiffon'' (2010; autobiographical writings)
* with
Massimo Gramellini: ''La Patria, bene o male'', Mondadori, Milano 2010. .
Works with Franco Lucentini
* ''Il secondo libro della fantascienza'' (1961; the first of several successful anthologies of
science fiction
Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
short stories edited by F&L; )
* ''L'idraulico non verrà'' (1971; poetry collection; )
* ''
La donna della domenica'' (1972, translated into
English by
William Weaver
William Fense Weaver (24 July 1923 – 12 November 2013) was an English language translator of modern Italian literature.
Weaver was best known for his translations of the work of Umberto Eco, Primo Levi, and Italo Calvino,Bruce Webe"Willi ...
as ''The Sunday Woman'' in 1973; the first and most famous novel by F&L, and one of the first examples of Italian crime novels)
* ''L'Italia sotto il tallone di F&L'' (1974; a humorous political fantasy in which Fruttero & Lucentini become dictators of Italy with the help of
Muammar al-Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi (20 October 2011) was a Libyan military officer, revolutionary, politician and political theorist who ruled Libya from 1969 until his assassination by Libyan rebel forces in 2011. He came to power ...
; the novel was inspired by the actual harsh reaction of the embassy of
Libya
Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...
to a satirical article by F&L in ''La Stampa'', very critical of Gaddafi; )
* ''Il significato dell'esistenza'' (1974; )
* ''
A che punto è la notte'' (1979; crime novel; , as in the Bible,
Isaiah
Isaiah ( or ; , ''Yəšaʿyāhū'', "Yahweh is salvation"; also known as Isaias or Esaias from ) was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named.
The text of the Book of Isaiah refers to Isaiah as "the prophet" ...
21:11).
* ''La cosa in sé'' (1982; play "in two acts and a licence" about a man who realises that
solipsism
Solipsism ( ; ) is the philosophical idea that only one's mind is sure to exist. As an epistemological position, solipsism holds that knowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure; the external world and other minds cannot be known ...
is real and all the universe is created by his mind; , as in
the philosophical term)
* ''Il Palio delle contrade morte'' (1983, )
* ''Ti trovo un po' pallida'' (1983; a ghost story set in sunny
Tuscany
Tuscany ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of 3,660,834 inhabitants as of 2025. The capital city is Florence.
Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and its in ...
, originally appeared in the
L'Espresso
() is an Italian progressive weekly news magazine. It is one of the two most prominent Italian weeklies; the other is the conservative magazine . Since 2022, it has been published by BFC Media. From 7 August 2016 to 10 September 2023, it was ...
magazine in 1979; it was actually written by Fruttero alone, as explained in the afterword to the 2007 edition; )
* ''La prevalenza del cretino'' (1985; a collection of "L'Agenda di F. & L." columns form the newspaper ''
La Stampa
(English: "The Press") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Turin with an average circulation of 87,143 copies in May 2023. Distributed in Italy and other European nations, it is one of the oldest newspapers in Italy. Until the late 1970 ...
'', about all forms of stupidity; )
* ''Il colore del destino'' (1987; collection of three novellas: ''Notizie dagli scavi'' (by Lucentini) and ''Ti trovo un po' pallida'' (by Fruttero), already published, and ''Il colore del destino'' (written jointly); it is the only book by the two authors having the byline "Lucentini & Fruttero" rather than "Fruttero & Lucentini"; )
* ''La verità sul caso D'' (1989, translated into English by Gregory Dowling as ''The D. Case: or The Truth about the Mystery of Edwin Drood''; a completion and elaboration on
Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by many as the great ...
'
The Mystery of Edwin Drood; )
* ''L'amante senza fissa dimora'' (1986; a novel about a successful Italian woman meeting a mysterious man in romantic Venice: an apparently standard love story with a twist; published in English by Chatto & Windus in 1999 as "No fixed abode")
* ''Storie americane di guerra'' (1991, editor; anthology of "American war stories")
* ''Enigma in luogo di mare'' (1991; crime novel set in a seaside community in Tuscany; )
* ''Il ritorno del cretino'' (1992; more columns from "La Stampa"; )
* ''Breve storia delle vacanze'' (1994; )
* ''La morte di Cicerone'' (1995; )
* ''Il nuovo libro dei nomi di battesimo'' (1998; a non-fiction handbook about how to choose a name for a son, with amusing information and trivia on names' meaning and use)
* ''Il cretino in sintesi'' (2002; still more columns from "La Stampa"; )
* ''Viaggio di nozze al Louvre'' (2002; )
* ''I nottambuli'' (2002; )
* ''I ferri del mestiere'' (2003; a collection of articles and short stories edited by Domenico Scarpa; )
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fruttero, Carlo
1926 births
2012 deaths
Writers from Turin
Journalists from Turin
Italian male journalists
Italian crime fiction writers
Italian male writers