Andrea Camilleri dies. Commissioner Montalbano is left an orphan

I have a month of July to forget because of deaths. The one I was missing was the literary one and here it is. Andrea Camilleri has died, the Italian writer creator of the unforgettable and universal curator Salvo Montalbano. So all fans of the black genre regret the loss. Camilleri, nonagenarian and of enormous work, leave us a legacy that will endure undoubtedly. This is my review of his figure.

Andrea Camilleri

Camilleri suffered a heart attack just a month ago from which he has not been able to recover and has died today in Roma. The 93 years and blind for some time, he continued to write with the help of his secretary.

Sicilian by birth, professed a deep love for his land And so he captured and transmitted it in his work. All his stories and writings in his more than 100 books published between novels, essays and stories they carry the aroma of their land. Also his particular vision of the world, with a young, rebellious, critical and ironic spirit, with his condition as a chain smoker and great lively. Is the author best selling and loved in Italy.

Father of the Mediterranean crime novel

Considered one of the fathers of the Mediterranean crime novel, he is referent of compatriots and also successful authors such as Antonio Manzini or Maurizio de Giovanni, to give a few examples. But also of the European Negro genre in general.

It is well known its great friendship with Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, whom he considered his favorite non-Italian author and from whom he had read all his work. Of course, his admiration could not be more sincere in naming his best-known creature after him.

"Soon. Montalbano sounded… ».

Commissioner Montalbano is the creation most universal and popular by Camilleri. Have been published 26 novels which have been translated to 25 languages and that they have sold more than 25 million copies. A success that Camilleri himself could not explain either, since he was a character without too deep edges or special traumas or marked iconography.

Montalbano is simply a civil servant, not at all disturbing, with a lively character, a great gourmet and, although it sounds cliché, very italian. A normal man, whom you cannot fully see as the authority, perhaps also because of the environment and secondary characters that surround him. Off duty, you take it to eat, have dinner or a drink at any time and you are guaranteed a good time. And in his work, the loyalty to himself and his men comes first, just like their opposition and their unorthodox ways when their superiors give absurd orders.

If you also put it in that Siliconian atmosphere as bucolic as it is full of nooks, with mafia affairs always in the background, and a luxury secondary team, you are assured of the readers' favor.

And that success was rounded off with the television adaptation of their cases in the RAI 1 series. Here it has been seen by La 2 in several reruns already. A success in terms of setting and locations, and in a cast that puts the best faces on the commissioner and his men. In short, what worth discovering for those who still do not know him both in his literary and television creation, which I recommend seeing in the original version.

Montalbano Series

• The shape of the water
• The Terracotta Dog
• The snack thief
• The voice of the violin
• The excursion to Tindari
• The smell of the night
• A decisive turn
• The patience of the spider
• The paper moon
• August burning
• The wings of the sphinx
• The sand road
• The potter's field
• The age of doubt
• The dance of the seagull
• Treasure hunt
• By the mouth dies the fish
• Angelica's smile
• The mirror game
• An edge of light
• A voice in the night
• A nest of vipers
• Death in the open sea
• The pyramid of mud