Born in Rome in 1972, he has been passionate about French literature since adolescence, which he teaches at the University of Tor Vergata. He has contributed to specialist magazines such as Paragone, Sincronie, in addition to articles relating to his discipline in newspapers like "Correre della Sera" and "L'Espresso". Con le peggiori intenzioni (2005), the story of a Jewish family in decline and the odd habits of each of its members, was met with great success and was welcomed by critics such as Franco Cordelli as «one of the most brilliant beginnings in recent literature». The novel won prizes from Viareggio and Campiello Opera, and was followed by Persecuzione and Inseparabili (Premio Strega 2012), which form the Il fuoco amico dei ricordi diptych, finalist in France to the Médicis and Femina prizes and winner of the Prix du Méilleur Livre Étranger; Dove la storia finisce (2016), a novel which takes the reader to the environments and relationships of the bourgeoisie which Piperno is once again able to describe with affectionate irony; Il manifesto del libero lettore (2017), a journey through the great novelists of all time, driven by the conviction that «books are instruments of pleasure, like drugs, alcohol, sex».

(photo: © Leonardo Cendamo)