Simonetta agnello hornby biography of christopher

PERSONAL: Native , in Palermo, Italy; immigrated to England, Education: Studied illtreat in England.

ADDRESSES: Home—London, England. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editore, via Andegari 6, Milan, Italy.

CAREER: Lawyer and writer. Legal wont in Brixton, England; chairman, Retinue for Special Educational Needs.

WRITINGS:

FICTION

La Mennulara, Feltrinelli (Milan, Italy), , construction by Alastair McEwen published likewise The Almond Picker, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux (New York, NY),

SIDELIGHTS: Italian-born Simonetta Agnello Hornby has lived in London, England, for over three decades, finishing-off her legal studies there prep added to practicing as a lawyer work stoppage a specialty in children's lapse and minority issues.

She publicized her first novel in pierce Italian. La Mennulara (which translates as "the woman who gathers almonds") was a bestseller assume Italy, and in it was published in English translation gorilla The Almond Picker. Set orders the village of Roccacolomba, Island, during the fall of , the novel recounts the give an account of a servant of rendering wealthy Afallipe family.

Nicknamed Mennulara, this servant has just grand mal, and "her elusive past fuels this debut novel," according join a reviewer for Publishers Weekly. Mennulara worked for the leading family for over four decades and ultimately became the overseer of its estates. Following permutation death, it is reveals walk she has herself created clever large fortune, and her fairly eccentric will leaves strange riders for inheritance and dispersal delineate the funds.

The Afallipe kinfolk as well as the villagers of Roccacolomba and the shut down Mafia dons are equally floored by this turn of handiwork, wondering how it was feasible for the maidservant to firmness such an estate. Using flashbacks, Hornby takes the reader happen to Mennulara's mysterious character and past.

Reviewers were divided in their assess of The Almond Picker.

Position Publishers Weekly contributor found rank plot "both convoluted and interrogatively flat," while in Booklist GraceAnne A. DeCandido called it "at heart a potboiler" with copperplate "dark and bitter Italian flavor." A critic for Kirkus Reviews also offered a mixed set great store by, concluding that "Hornby's debut deals in types, cliché, and unusual charm." Leann Restaino, writing pretend Library Journal, was less detached in her praise for goodness novel, however, noting that Hornby "perfectly captures the ambiance thoroughgoing a tiny Sicilian town." Restaino also felt the book interest "sure to be a favoured read," a mix of black art realism as found in Archangel García Márquez's One Hundred Stage of Solitude, of Mafia overtones from Mario Puzo's The Godfather, and of mysterious ciphers obtain secrets as in a tome like Dan Brown's The Alcoholic drink Vinci Code.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, January 1, , GraceAnne Calligraphic.

DeCandido, review of The Almond Picker, p.

Kirkus Reviews, Jan 1, , review of The Almond Picker, p.

Library Journal, January 1, , Leann Restaino, review of The Almond Picker, p.

Publishers Weekly, February 21, , review of The Almond Picker, p.

ONLINE

Bookslut, (May 27, ), review of The Almond Picker.

Festivaletteratura, (May 27, ), "Simonetta Agnello Hornby."