(7 March 2016) In a recent interview, Marcello Simoni honored the late Umberto Eco, as “to the great writer, master of a fantasy world, I owe my bestselling Middle Ages saga.” But Simoni’s books are global phenomena in their own right, with the historical novel L’Abbazia dei cento peccati being translated into Portuguese and published by Clube do Autor. The edition will be presented tomorrow at the Italian Cultural Institute of Lisbon (at 7pm) by Portuguese writer and journalist Gonçalo Cadilhe, in the presence of the author. The former archaeologist and librarian, with a degree in Literature, Marcello Simoni made his debut in 2011 with the ultimate medieval novel “Il mercante di libri maledetti”, which for over a year topped the charts and won the 60th Bancarella Prize and saw its translation rights acquired in eighteen countries. Newton Compton later published: “La biblioteca perduta dell’alchimista” and “Il labirinto ai confini del mondo”, the second and third volumes of the merchant trilogy; ” “L’isola dei monaci senza nome”, with whom Simoni won the Lizza D’Oro Award in 2013. In 2014, the author published “L’abbazia dei cento peccati”, the first chapter in a new trilogy, soon followed by “L’abbazia dei cento delitti”(2015). The expected epilogue “L’abbazia dei cento inganni” is bound to be released this year. (Red)
