Nicola Lagioia

Nicola Lagioia was born in Bari in 1973 and currently lives in Rome. He is a writer and journalist. He directs the Italian literature series at the publishing house minimum fax. His first book, "Tre sistemi per sbarazzarsi di Tolstoj" (Three Ways to Get Rid of Tolstoy), was published in 2001 and won the Lo Straniero Prize. This was followed by the novels "Occidente per principianti" (West for Beginners) in 2004 and "Riportando tutto a casa" (Bringing Everything Back Home) in 2009, which received the Viareggio Repaci, Vittorini, and Volponi Prizes. In 2014, he published the novel "La Ferocia" (The Ferocity), for which he was awarded the prestigious Strega Prize in 2015. During the award ceremony, he symbolically dedicated it to Greece during its crisis. He worked systematically on "The Ferocity" for four years, with the exception of a short break in the summer of 2012, when he traveled to a Greek island to get married.