Valerio Evangelisti
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Valerio Evangelisti (born June 20, 1952) is one of the most popular Italian writers of science fiction, fantasy and horror. He is known mainly for his series of novels featuring Nicolas Eymerich inquisitor and the Nostradamus trilogy, all bestsellers translated in many languages.
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[edit] Biography
Evangelisti earned his degree in Political Science in 1976 with a historical-political thesis. He was born Bologna, where he currently lives; he spend some time each year in Puerto Escondido, Mexico, where he owns a house.
Until 1990 his career was mainly academic, working also for Italy’s Ministero di Finanze (Treasury Department). His first written works were historical essays, including five books and some forty articles. In 1993 he won the Urania Prize, instituted by Italy’s main science fiction magazine with the same name and mainly devoted to the discovering of new literally talents in the field, with the novel Nicolas Eymerich, inquisitore. The same magazine would publish the other novels of the series in the following years : Le catene di Eymerich (Eymerich’s Chains, 1995), Il corpo e il sangue di Eymerich (Eymerich’s Body and Blood, 1996), Il mistero dell'inquisitore Eymerich (Eymerich’s Mystery, 1996), Cherudek (1997), Picatrix, la scala per l'inferno (Picatrix, the Stairway to Hell, 1998), Il castello di Eymerich (Eymerich’s Castle, 2001), Mater terribilis (2002).
Nicolas Eymerich is a true historical character who belonged to the Spanish Inquisition and to the Dominicans order; he was born in 1320 in Gerona, Catalonia. He died in 1399. Evangelisti’s version of the character is a cruel, ruthless, haughty, restless man, who acts in the most merciless way in order to protect the Catholic Church against every kind of menaces, were they of natural or supernatural origin. At the same time he shows an outstanding intelligence and a deep culture in his actions. In the several novel of the series he investigated the mysterious phenomena of Medieval Europe, thus subtly influencing many of the historical events of that epoch; in many occasions the solution of the riddles comes up from stories which are narrated along with the main plot, normally set in the present and the future time. Evangelisti's atmospheres are normally dark, nightmarish, haunting.
Another success of 1999, also translated in several languages, is the Magus trilogy, a romanticized biography of the famous Middle Ages prophecies writer Nostradamus. The three novels, Il presagio ("The Omen"), L’inganno ("The Deceit") and L'abisso ("The Abyss") sold 100,000 copies in Italy.
Evangelisti's novels are greatly appreciated in France (where he won several literary awards), Spain, Germany and Portugal. He is currently the director of the Carmilla magazine. In the last years he wrote some works which show his love for heavy metal music, namely the short stories collection Metallo urlante (referring to the French magazine Metal Hurlant) and the novels Black Flag and Antracite: they feature a new character, Pantera, a palero shaman acting in the American Civil War age. One of his latest novel, Noi saremo tutto ("We shall be All"), spans over several decades of last century, exploring the life of Eddie Florio, a gangster, which connects with the history of the trade unions and the workers' battles for civil rights.
Mexico is the set for his next novel, Il collare di fuoco ("The Fire Collar"), which has been published in November, 2005.
[edit] Main works
[edit] Historical essays
- Storia del partito socialista rivoluzionario 1881-1893 (1981) ,Cappelli, Bologna
- Il galletto rosso, precariato e conflitto di classe in Emilia Romagna 1880-1890 with Salvatore Sechi, (1982), Marsilio, Venezia
- Sinistre eretiche, dalla banda Bonnot al Sandinismo, 1905-1984 (1985), SugarCo, Milano
- Gallerie nel presente. Punk, Snuffs, Contras: tre studi di storia simultanea' (1988), Lacaita, Bari
- Gli sbirri alla lanterna: la plebe giacobina bolognese dall'anno I all'anno V (1792-1797) (1991), Bold Machine, Bologna
[edit] Eymerich series
- Nicolas Eymerich inquisitore (1994), Urania #1241, Mondadori, Milan
- Le catene di Eymerich (1995), Urania #1262, Mondadori, Milan
- Il corpo e il sangue di Eymerich (1996), Urania #1281, Mondadori, Milan
- Il mistero dell'inquisitore Eymerich (1996), Mondadori, Milan
- Cherudek 1997, Mondadori, Milan
- Picatrix, la scala per l'inferno (1998), Urania #1330, Mondadori, Milan
- Il castello di Eymerich (2001), Mondadori, Milan
- Mater Terribilis (2002), Mondadori, Milani
[edit] Metal Hurlant series
- Metallo urlante (1998), Einaudi, Turin
- Black Flag (2002), Einaudi, Turin
- Antracite (2003), Mondadori, Milan
[edit] Nostradamus Trilogy
- Magus: Il Presagio, (1999), Mondadori, Milan
- Magus. L'Inganno, (1999), Mondadori, Milan
- Magus: L'Abisso, (1999), Mondadori, Milan
- Magus: Il Romanzo di Nostradamus, (2000), Mondadori, Milan
[edit] Other novels
[edit] Comics
- La furia di Eymerich, (2003), Mondadori – art by Francesco Mattioli
- Nicolas Eymerich inquisitore (2003), Bande dessinée – art by David Sala
