Erri De Luca was born in Naples in 1950 and lives near Rome today. He is one of contemporary Italy's most acclaimed novelists, who came to writing after a lifetime of political protest and long years of exile. His works include the international best-seller God's Mountain (2003), which was awarded France's Prix Femina Etranger, and The Sea of Memory (1999). An autodidact in ancient Hebrew, he has translated several books of the Bible, an experience that has shaped his idiosyncratic use of Italian. His latest work, Morsa di luna nuova, is a closet drama written in his native language, the Neapolitan dialect.