Antonio Tabucchi

Antonio Tabucchi was born in Pisa and fell in love with Lisbon after discovering the poetry of Fernando Pessoa on a bench near the Sorbonne in Paris. He became Italy's foremost scholar and translator of Pessoa, teaching Portuguese literature at the University of Genoa and the University of Siena.

Tabucchi wrote novels of extraordinary lyrical subtlety, including 'Indian Nocturne' (1984, Prix Médicis étranger). In 1994, he published 'Pereira Maintains' (Sostiene Pereira), depicting an elderly, apolitical Lisbon cultural journalist who gradually discovers the moral necessity of resisting Salazar's fascist dictatorship; the novel won the Campiello and Viareggio Prizes.