Pia Pera

Pia Pera
Born12 March 1956
Lucca, Italy
Died26 July 2016 (aged 60)
Lucca, Italy
OccupationWriter

Pia Pera (12 March 1956 – 26 July 2016) was an Italian novelist, essayist, and translator.

Pera was born in Lucca, Tuscany. Her father, Giuseppe Pera, was a jurist and Russian translator, known from translating most of Alexander Pushkin's work into Italian. Pera followed her father's footsteps and learned Russian, but from very early on expressed an interested in having a career as a writer. Her first collection of short stories, La bellezza dell'asino ("The Beauty of the Donkey"), was published in 1992.

Pera got international notoriety with her 1995 novel Lo's Diary (Italian: Diario di Lo), a retelling of Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita from the point of view of the female title character.[1] In later years she specialized in novels connected to her passion for gardening.[2]

Pera was also a professor of Russian literature at the University of Trento and a translator of Russian novels and an essayist.[3] Her last work was the semi-autobiographic novel Al giardino ancora non l’ho detto ("I haven't told my garden yet").[2]

Pera died at 60 years old of motor neuron disease.[2]

  1. ^ Peter Bondanella, Andrea Ciccarelli (31 July 2003). The Cambridge Companion to the Italian Novel. Cambridge University Press, 2003. ISBN 1139826107.
  2. ^ a b c Emanuele Trevi (26 July 2016). "Addio alla scrittrice Pia Pera: il suo giardino oltre le parole". Corriere della Sera. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  3. ^ Redazione (27 July 2016). "Addio a Pia Pera, scrittrice e giardiniera". La Nuova Sardegna. Retrieved 28 July 2016.