Biography

Born in Rome, by the age of 12 Massimo Mongai was a dedicated reader of science fiction. He graduated in law. According to the biography printed in many of his books, his influences include the science-fiction writers Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...

, A. E. van Vogt

A. E. van Vogt

Alfred Elton van Vogt was a Canadian-born science fiction author regarded by some as one of the most popular and complex science fiction writers of the mid-twentieth century: the "Golden Age" of the genre....

, Poul Anderson

Poul Anderson

Poul William Anderson was an American science fiction author who began his career during one of the Golden Ages of the genre and continued to write and remain popular into the 21st century. Anderson also authored several works of fantasy, historical novels, and a prodigious number of short stories...

 and Philip José Farmer

Philip José Farmer

Philip José Farmer was an American author, principally known for his award-winning science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories....

 and the crime writers Rex Stout

Rex Stout

Rex Todhunter Stout was an American writer noted for his detective fiction. Stout is best known as the creator of the larger-than-life fictional detective Nero Wolfe, described by reviewer Will Cuppy as "that Falstaff of detectives." Wolfe's assistant Archie Goodwin recorded the cases of the...

 and Andrea Camilleri

Andrea Camilleri

Andrea Camilleri is an Italian writer.-Biography:Originally from Porto Empedocle, Sicily, Camilleri, began studies at the Faculty of Literature in 1944, without concluding them, meanwhile publishing poems and short stories.From 1948 to 1950 Camilleri studied stage and film direction at the Silvio...

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Works

In 1997, he wrote Memorie di un cuoco d'astronave. This blend of space saga and cooking manual won Italy's Urania Award

Urania Award

The Urania Award is an annual literary competition run by the Italian magazine Urania for contemporary Italian science fiction novels. It was held for the first time in 1989.-List of winners:...

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His other books include Il gioco degli immortali, Tette e pistole, Memorie di un cuoco di un bordello spaziale, Cronache non ufficiali di due spie italiane, Il Fascio sulle stelle di Benito Mussolini and Alienati, a novel about an inter-planetary convention of psychoanalysts. He also works on the Italian magazine Il Falcone Maltese, dedicated to crime fiction, known in Italy as giallo

Giallo

Giallo is an Italian 20th century genre of literature and film, which in Italian indicates crime fiction and mystery. In the English language it refers to a genre similar to the French fantastique genre and includes elements of horror fiction and eroticism...

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External links

• Massimo Mongai (Interview in English)