Alessandro Baricco was born in Turin in 1958. The author of four previous novels, he has won the Prix Medicis Etranger in France and the Selezione Campiello, Viareggio, and Palazzo del Bosco prizes in Italy. His third novel, Silk, became an immediate bestseller in Italy and has been translated into twenty-seven languages. It is the basis of an opera by Andre Previn and a film produced by Miramax.
