Ermanno Rea (28 July 1927 – 13 September 2016) was an Italian novelist, essayist and journalist.

Life and career

Rea was born in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

. During World War II, he was a partisan of the Garibaldi Brigade "Gino Menconi". After the war, he started working as a journalist for a number of publications including ''

L'Unità ''l'Unità'' (, lit. 'the Unity') was an Italian language, Italian newspaper, founded as the official newspaper of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1924. It was supportive of that party's successor parties, the Democratic Party of the Left, ...

'', '' Panorama'', '' Il Giorno'' and ''Tempo Illustrato''. In 1996, Rea won the

Viareggio Prize The Viareggio Prize ( it, Premio Viareggio, italic=no or ) is an Italian literary prize, first awarded in 1930. Named after the Tuscan city of Viareggio, it was conceived by three friends, , Carlo Salsa and Leonida Rèpaci, to rival the Milanes ...

with the autobiographical novel ''Mistero napoletano''; in 1999, he won the

Campiello Prize The ''Premio Campiello'' is an annual Italian literary prize. A Jury of Literary Experts (''Giuria di letterati'' in Italian) identifies books published during the year and, in a public hearing, selects five of those as finalists. These books ar ...

with the novel ''Fuochi fiammanti a un'hora di notte''. In 2008, he was a finalist for the

Strega Prize The Strega Prize ( it, Premio Strega ) is the most prestigious Italian literary award. It has been awarded annually since 1947 for the best work of prose fiction written in the Italian language by an author of any nationality and first published ...

with the novel ''Napoli ferrovia''. His 2002 novel ''La dismissione'' was adapted into a film, ''

The Missing Star ''La stella che non c'è'' ( English title: ''The Missing Star'') is an Italian 2006 drama film written and directed by Gianni Amelio. The story talks about an Italian engineer who went to China to fix a defect of old Italian steel-making equipm ...

'', directed by

Gianni Amelio Gianni Amelio (born 20 January 1945) is an Italian film director. Early life Amelio was born in San Pietro di Magisano, province of Catanzaro, Calabria. His father moved to Argentina soon after his birth. He spent his youth and adolescence with h ...

. His 2016 novel ''Nostalgia'' was adapted into a 2022 film of the same title directed by Mario Martone. Rea died on 13 September 2016 at the age of 89.

References

External links

* 1927 births 2016 deaths Writers from Naples Premio Campiello winners Viareggio Prize winners 21st-century Italian novelists Italian male novelists 21st-century Italian male writers Journalists from Naples {{italy-writer-stub