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It is 112 years today since Julian Symons was born.
Julian Gustave Symons was a British author and critic born in London, where he spent part of his life. His mother was English and his father a Russian Jew, a stern Victorian patriarch who gave his son little or no encouragement. Symons developed such a severe stammer in childhood that he was sent to a succession of state schools for retarded children. He was close to his twelve years older...
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It is 69 years today since Colm Tóibin was born.
Colm Tóibín is an Irish author and journalist who grew up in Enniscorthy in the south-west of Ireland as one of Bríd and Michael Tóibín's five children. His father was a teacher. Tóibín attended St Peter's College, Wexford, between 1970 and 1972 and graduated from University College Dublin in 1975. He became interested in Spain after reading Hemingway, and after graduation he immediately travel...
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It is 63 years today since Gianrico Carofiglio was born.
Gianrico Carofiglio is an Italian novelist and former judge born and raised in Bari, Apulia. After having passed his law degree, Carofiglio began to work as a prosecutor in Bari in 1986, and he soon became involved in fighting organised crime. He was part of a group of magistrates that tried to take down the local mafia, Sacra Corona, in Bari. It led to the incarceration of a large number of its...
Sample of Authors
Morante, Elsa
1912 - 1985
The Italian author Elsa Morante was born in Rome, where she grew up in the poor working-class district of Testaccio. She...
Further reading
Fonseca, Rubem
1925 - 2020
Brazilian author, born in Juiz de Fora in Minas Gerais, but at the age of 7 moved to Rio de Janeiro. Fonseca gained a...
Further reading
Coetzee, J.M.
1940 -
J.M. (John Maxwell) Coetzee was born in Cape Town, South Africa. Although he is of Boer descent, the family spoke English...
Further reading
Hosseini, Khaled
1965 -
Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, as the oldest of five children. His mother was a teacher of history and...
Further reading