Antonio Tabucchi facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Antonio Tabucchi
Born	(1943-09-24)24 September 1943 Pisa, Italy
Died	25 March 2012(2012-03-25) (aged 68) Lisbon, Portugal
Occupation	Novelist, short-story writer
Nationality	Italian, Portuguese
Period	1969–2012
Spouse	Maria José de Lancastre

Antonio Tabucchi (born September 24, 1943 – died March 25, 2012) was an Italian writer and university professor. He taught Portuguese language and literature at the University of Siena in Italy.

Antonio Tabucchi had a deep love for Portugal. He was an expert on the works of Fernando Pessoa, a famous Portuguese poet. Tabucchi learned a lot from Pessoa, especially about ideas like saudade (a feeling of longing), fiction, and heteronyms (different writing personalities). He first discovered Pessoa's books in the 1960s while studying in Paris. He was so fascinated that he started learning Portuguese to understand the poet better.

His books and essays have been translated into 18 languages. With his wife, Maria José de Lancastre, he translated many of Pessoa's works into Italian. He also wrote a book of essays and a play about Pessoa. Tabucchi won several important awards, like the French "Médicis étranger" prize for his book Indian Nocturne and the Premio Campiello for Sostiene Pereira. Towards the end of his life, people thought he might win the Nobel Prize in Literature, but he never did.

Early Life

Antonio Tabucchi was born in Pisa, Italy. He grew up in a nearby village called Vecchiano with his grandparents. When he was in university, he traveled a lot around Europe. He was looking for authors he had read in his uncle's library.

During one of these trips, he found a poem called "Tabacaria" (tobacco shop) at a bookstall in Paris. It was written by Álvaro de Campos, one of the pen names of the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa. This book greatly influenced his writing for many years.

A visit to Lisbon made him fall in love with the city and the country of Portugal. Because of this, he wrote his university thesis in 1969 about "Surrealism in Portugal." In 1973, he became a teacher of Portuguese Language and Literature in Bologna. That same year, he wrote his first novel, Piazza d'Italia. In this book, he tried to tell history from the point of view of people who didn't win, like the Tuscan anarchists.

Career

In 1978, Antonio Tabucchi started teaching at the University of Genoa. He then published more books, including Il piccolo naviglio and Il gioco del rovescio e altri racconti in 1981. In 1983, he published Donna di porto Pim.

His first major novel, Indian Nocturne, came out in 1984. It was later made into a film in 1989. In this story, the main character searches for a missing friend in India. But really, he is searching for who he is. Tabucchi published Piccoli equivoci senza importanza in 1985. The next year, he wrote Il filo dell'orizzonte. This novel also features a character searching for something, but also for his own identity. This idea of searching for oneself became a common theme in Tabucchi's books.

In 1987, he received France's Prix Médicis for Notturno indiano. The next year, he wrote a play called I dialoghi mancati. The President of Portugal honored him in 1989. That same year, the French government also gave him an award. Tabucchi published Un baule pieno di gente. Scritti su Fernando Pessoa in 1990. He also wrote L'angelo nero in 1991. In 1991, he wrote Requiem: A Hallucination in Portuguese, which was later translated into Italian.

In 1994, he released Gli ultimi tre giorni di Fernando Pessoa. He also published Sostiene Pereira, which became his most famous novel. This book won several awards. The main character in Sostiene Pereira becomes a symbol for defending freedom of information. He stands up for people who are against unfair governments. In Italy, this book became very popular during a time of political debate. A film was made from this book in 1995, starring Marcello Mastroianni.

In 1997, Tabucchi wrote The Missing Head of Damasceno Monteiro. This novel was based on a true story about a man who died under mysterious circumstances. The story happened in Porto, a city Tabucchi loved. To write this book, Tabucchi looked at documents from investigators at the Council of Europe. This organization works to protect human rights. The novel turned out to be very accurate, as a police officer later confessed to the crime. Also in 1997, Tabucchi wrote Marconi, se ben mi ricordo. The next year, he wrote L'Automobile, la Nostalgie et l'Infini.

In 2001, Tabucchi published Si sta facendo sempre più tardi (English title: It's Getting Later All the Time). This book is written as 17 letters. These letters are like "messages in a bottle" because they don't have a specific person they are sent to. The book won the 2002 Prize France Culture for foreign literature.

Antonio Tabucchi used to spend half the year in Lisbon with his wife and two children. His wife was from Lisbon. The other half of the year, he lived in Tuscany, Italy. There, he taught Portuguese literature at the University of Siena. Tabucchi saw himself as a writer, but he was also proud to be a "university professor." For him, writing was not just a job. It was "something that involves desires, dreams and imagination." Tabucchi also wrote articles for newspapers like Corriere della Sera and El País.

Death

Antonio Tabucchi passed away in a hospital in Lisbon on March 25, 2012. He was 68 years old and had been battling cancer for a long time.

Honours

In 2007, he received an honorary degree from the University of Liège. The Portuguese government gave him the title Commander of the Order of Prince Henry in 1989. In the same year, the French government named him a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres. In 2004, he won the Francisco de Cerecedo journalism prize. This award recognized his excellent journalism and his strong support for freedom of speech. Spain's King Felipe VI, who was then Prince of Asturias, presented him with this award.

Works

• Piazza d'Italia (1975), ISBN: 88-07-01458-0
• Il piccolo naviglio (1978)
• Il gioco del rovescio e altri racconti (1981, short story collection), ISBN: 88-07-01354-1
• Donna di Porto Pim (1983)
• Indian Nocturne (Notturno indiano, 1984)
• Little Misunderstandings of No Importance (Piccoli equivoci senza importanza, 1985, short story collection), ISBN: 88-07-01306-1
• Il filo dell'orizzonte (1986), ISBN: 88-07-01322-3
• The Flying Creatures of Fra Angelico (I volatili del Beato Angelico, 1987) ISBN: 978-1935744566
• Pessoana mínima (1987)
• I dialoghi mancati (1988), ISBN: 88-07-05058-7
• Un baule pieno di gente. Scritti su Fernando Pessoa (1990, essays), ISBN: 88-07-05080-3
• L'angelo nero (1991, short story collection), ISBN: 88-07-01414-9
• Sogni di sogni (1992)
• Requiem: A Hallucination (Requiem: uma alucinação, 1991), ISBN: 88-07-01433-5
• Gli ultimi tre giorni di Fernando Pessoa (1994), ISBN: 88-389-1056-1
• Pereira Maintains (Sostiene Pereira, 1994), ISBN: 88-07-01461-0
• Dove va il romanzo (1995, essay), ISBN: 88-86680-00-7
• Carlos Gumpert, Conversaciones con Antonio Tabucchi (1995)
• The Missing Head of Damasceno Monteiro (La testa perduta di Damasceno Monteiro, 1997), ISBN: 88-07-01518-8
• Marconi, se ben mi ricordo (1997), ISBN: 88-397-0978-9
• L'Automobile, la Nostalgie et l'Infini (1998)
• La gastrite di Platone (1998), ISBN: 88-389-1421-4
• Gli Zingari e il Rinascimento (1999), ISBN: 88-380-8010-0
• Ena poukamiso gemato likedes (Una camicia piena di macchie. Conversazioni di A.T. con Anteos Chrysostomidis, 1999)
• Dreams of Dreams and the Last Three Days of Fernando Pessoa (2000), ISBN: 978-0-87286-368-2
• It's Getting Later All the Time (Si sta facendo sempre più tardi. Romanzo in forma di lettere, 2001), ISBN: 88-07-01590-0
• Autobiografie altrui. Poetiche a posteriori (2003), ISBN: 88-07-42098-8
• Tristano muore. Una vita (2004), ISBN: 88-07-01646-X
• Time Ages in a Hurry (Il tempo invecchia in fretta, 2009), ISBN: 9780914671053
• Viaggi e altri viaggi (2010)
• Racconti con figure (2011), ISBN: 88-389-2494-5
• Girare per le strade (2012)
• For Isabel: A Mandala (Per Isabel) (2017)

See also

In Spanish: Antonio Tabucchi para niños