Donna Leon

Donna Leon was born in New Jersey, USA, in 1942 and first went to Italy in 1965. She has been a permanent resident of Switzerland, England, Saudi Arabia, and China, where she taught English literature. She began writing books as a joke at the La Fenice theater in Venice when, upon seeing a German conductor poorly conducting the orchestra, she thought, why not kill him? This thought became the starting point for her novel "Death at La Fenice." Leon is a crime fiction critic for the "Sunday Times" and an opera expert, particularly on Handel. Perhaps that's why she wrote the libretto for a comic opera, "Donna Galliana," which was staged in Innsbruck in 2002. All her books, featuring the central character Inspector Brunetti, have sold millions of copies and have been translated into many languages. Her work "Death at La Fenice" was honored with the Japanese Suntory Prize. Recently, the Crime Writers' Association awarded her the Silver Dagger. Donna Leon lives in Venice, the permanent setting of her books, and with the proceeds from her books, she funds an entire baroque orchestra.