Valerio Evangelisti
| Valerio Evangelisti | |
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Valerio Evangelisti at the Festival international du roman noir of Frontignan (France), 2008
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| Born |
June 20, 1952 Bologna, Italy |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Education | Political Science |
| Period | 1993–present |
| Genre | science fiction, fantasy, historical novels and horror |
| Notable works | Series of novels featuring Nicolas Eymerich |
| Notable awards | Urania Award (1993) |
| Website | |
| www |
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Valerio Evangelisti (born June 20, 1952) is an Italian writer of science fiction, fantasy, historical novels and horror. He is known mainly for his series of novels featuring the inquistor Nicolas Eymerich and for the Nostradamus trilogy, all bestsellers translated into many languages. Some of his books are seen as part of the body of literary works known as the New Italian Epic.
Evangelisti earned his degree in Political Science in 1976 with a historical-political thesis. He was born in Bologna, where he currently lives; he spends some time each year in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico, where he owns a house.
Until 1990 his career was mainly academic. He also worked for the Italian Ministero delle Finanze (Treasury Department). His first written works were historical essays, including five books and some forty articles. In 1993 his novel Nicolas Eymerich, inquisitore won the Urania Award, which was established by Urania, Italy’s main science fiction magazine, with the aim of discovering new talent in the field. Urania published other novels of the series in the following years: Le catene di Eymerich ("Eymerich’s Chains", 1995), Il corpo e il sangue di Eymerich ("Eymerich’s Body and Blood", 1996), Il mistero dell'inquisitore Eymerich ("Eymerich’s Mystery", 1996), Cherudek (1997), Picatrix, la scala per l'inferno ("Picatrix, the Stairway to Hell", 1998), Il castello di Eymerich ("Eymerich’s Castle", 2001), Mater terribilis (2002). Most of the last ones were however first published as hardcover.
Nicolas Eymerich is a real historical character, member of the order of the Dominicans and inquisitor in the Spanish Inquisition. He was born in 1320 in Girona, Catalonia, and died in 1399. Evangelisti’s interpretation of his character is a cruel, ruthless, haughty, restless man, who acts mercilessly to protect the Catholic Church against perceived menaces of natural or supernatural origin. At the same time he shows an outstanding intelligence and a deep culture in his actions. In the novels of the series he investigates the mysterious phenomena of Medieval Europe, thus subtly influencing many of the historical events of that epoch; on many occasions the solution of the riddles comes up from stories which are narrated along with the main plot, normally set in the present and in the future. Evangelisti's atmospheres are normally dark, nightmarish, haunting.
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