Before becoming a writer and a screenwriter, Parisian Pierre Lamaitre (b. 1951) taught literature and held seminars for librarians, «never too far from books» as he likes to say. In 2006, he made his debut with Travail soigné, followed three years later by Hitchcockian Robe de marié and has become a leading exponent of European noir genre and his works have been translated into twenty languages. An American novel enthusiast – his writers of reference include Ellroy and Bret Easton Ellis – after three more successful novels, in 2013 he authored Ci rivediamo lassù, a visionary work that talks about the friendship between two emigrants at the end of WWI with which he won the 2013 Gonocourt Prize.

(photo: © Leonardo Céndamo)