Literature Author Donna Leon won't let Brunetti die

SDA

5.12.2024 - 08:53

Author Donna Leon lived in Venice for many years. In her Commissario Brunetti crime novels, she repeatedly addresses Italian slovenliness against this backdrop. This is not only well received in Italy. (archive picture)
Author Donna Leon lived in Venice for many years. In her Commissario Brunetti crime novels, she repeatedly addresses Italian slovenliness against this backdrop. This is not only well received in Italy. (archive picture)
Keystone

Bestselling author Donna Leon, who lives in Switzerland, has no intention of stopping. Her fictional main character, Commissario Guido Brunetti, will live as long as she does, Leon said in an interview with Tamedia.

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"Brunetti will not die," Leon guaranteed in an interview with Tamedia on Thursday. However, it is possible that the detective will retire or call it quits. "I don't know yet," said the 82-year-old.

With Brunetti, she created a character 30 years ago that she enjoys spending time with. "And for a long time", even if she had no idea at the time how long. That's why she created a character who is intelligent and cultured and who values his appearance. "He is a walking example of bella figura," said the author, who lived in Venice, where her crime novels are set.

In the interview, the author denied herself the talent of writing in a different genre. Writing crime novels is easy: there is a beginning, a crime and there is someone who has to solve it and investigate a few suspects. "And then he finds out who committed the murder."

Criticism of and from Italy

Leon does not want to have her books translated into Italian. The fact that she writes about corruption and dishonesty has not always gone down well in Italy. "You don't want to hear such criticism from a foreign voice," said the author, agreeing with her critics to a certain extent.

Leon is currently writing the commissioner's 34th case, as revealed in the interview. At the end of May, "Trial by Fire. Commissario Brunetti's thirty-third case" was published by Zurich-based Diogenes Verlag. The crime novel was on the fiction bestseller list for several weeks.