Alessandro Baricco

Alessandro Baricco (Italian pronunciation: [ale's:andro baˈrik:o]; born 25 January 1958) is an Italian writer, director, and performer. His novels have been translated into a number of languages.

He has earned degrees in philosophy (under Gianni Vattimo) and in piano.

Baricco published essays on music criticism: Il genio in fuga (1988) on Gioachino Rossini, and L'anima di Hegel e le mucche del Wisconsin ("Hegel's Soul and the Cows of Wisconsin", 1992) on the relation between music and modernity. He subsequently worked as music critic for La Repubblica and La Stampa, and hosted talk shows on Rai Tre.

Baricco debuted as a novelist with Castelli di rabbia (translated as Lands of Glass) in 1991.

In 1993, he co-founded a creative writing school in Turin, naming it Scuola Holden after J. D. Salinger's Holden Caulfield. The Scuola Holden hosts a variety of courses on narrative techniques including screenwriting, journalism, novels, and short stories.

In the following years, his fame grew throughout Europe, with his works topping the Italian and French best-seller lists. Larger recognition followed the adaptation of his theatrical monologue Novecento into the film The Legend of 1900, directed by Giuseppe Tornatore.

He has also worked with the French band Air, releasing "City Reading", a mix of the band's music with Baricco's reading of his novel City.

Baricco resides in his hometown, Turin. He has two sons. He and his girlfriend Gloria Campaner live together.

In January 2022, Baricco announced he had been diagnosed with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia.