Andrea Camilleri would have turned 100, and Italy is celebrating with books, conferences, and tributes.

A dozen books by and about the Sicilian writer Andrea Camilleri are being published, in addition to meetings, concerts, awards, conferences and performances focusing on his personality and work, to mark his centenary , which will take place on September 6.

Camilleri, who died in July 2019, is already a legend of Italian literature and publishing – with 30 million copies sold, translated into almost 40 languages ​​– and of the history of television (not just Italian) thanks to the adaptation of his saga starring Inspector Montalbano in two series , broadcast repeatedly over the years with enormous success, including reruns.

Camilleri (Porto Empedocle, Sicily, 1925–Rome, 2019) worked as a theater director and screenwriter, as well as a professor at the Centro Experimental de Cinematografía. He published essays on the stage, chronicles of historical events, and several novels set in the imaginary city of Vigàta, in Sicily at the beginning of the 20th century .

Some of his books are The Forgotten Massacre, The Price of Honor, The Sect of the Angels, The Peasant King, The Cases of Commissioner Collura, Km 123, The Opera of Vigàta, The Emperor's Nephew, The Revolution of the Moon, Don't Touch Me, The Santamaria Case, The Sacco Gang, The Sheep and the Shepherd and the trilogy that makes up The Kiss of the Siren, The Gatekeeper and The Girl with the Bell .

In 1994, Camilleri published The Shape of Water , the first novel in the series featuring Inspector Montalbano (a name chosen as a tribute to the Spanish writer Manuel Vázquez Montalbán). Thanks to this series of detective novels, the author became one of his country's most successful writers. The character became a national hero in Italy and starred in a television series supervised by its creator.

The Andrea Camilleri Fund, chaired by his daughter Andreina , and the Camilleri 100 National Committee , chaired by Felice Laudadio, have launched several initiatives that will run in September and October, with the support of SIAE (Italian Association of Authors and Publishers), the main sponsor, and RAI, the main media partner.

In Rome, on Saturday, September 6, at 9 p.m., the Casa del Cinema will present, in its open-air Ettore Scola Theater, the now legendary final work written and performed by Camilleri, Conversazione su Tiresia (Conversation about Tiresias).

The work, which premiered exclusively at the Greek Theatre of Syracuse on June 11, 2018, was curated by Valentina Alferj and directed by Roberto And and Stefano Vicario. It features live music composed and performed by flautist Roberto Fabbriciani. Before the screening, filmed in high definition by Carlo Degli Esposti's Palomar, there will be a preview of the backstage rehearsals, presented by And, Degli Esposti, and Fabbriciani.

In Taormina, on Friday 5th and Saturday 6th, the Arte Sicilia Taormina Foundation will organize two major evenings dedicated to Camilleri , promoted by the Sicilian Region, curated by Gianna Fratta and Felice Laudadio, and which will take place in the magnificent setting of the Ancient Theatre.

Next up in Rome, on Sunday the 14th at 6 p.m., the Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone will host another important event, in collaboration with the Fondazione Musica per Roma, entitled "Andrea Camilleri, the Birth of a Legend."

Curated by Felice Laudadio and Ennio Coltorti, the event will feature the participation of 12 former students of Camilleri at the National Academy of Dramatic Arts . This time, the reading of Camilleri's texts in the Sala Petrassi will be led by Alessandra Acciai, Paolo Briguglia, Tosca D'Aquino, Fabrizio Gifuni, Sabina Guzzanti, Luigi Lo Cascio, Laura Marinoni, Massimo Popolizio, Pino Quartullo, Galatea Ranzi, Alvia Reale and Sergio Rubini, together with the Sicilian singer-songwriter Eleonora Bordonaro.

Also in the Italian capital, on September 20th at 7 p.m., the Quirino Theater will host the first edition of the Andrea Camilleri Prize - New Storytellers , organized by the Andrea Camilleri Fund and curated by Arianna Mortelliti, writer and granddaughter of the author. The Quirino evening, presented by Pino Strabioli, promises to be a spectacular event.

On October 8 and 9, the Igea Hall of the Treccani Italian Encyclopedia will host the international conference "Camilleri's Narrative," with the participation of some of the leading scholars of the writer's work. The four sessions will be moderated by Gaetano Savatteri, Elisabetta Mondello, Luca Crovi, and Giovanni Puglisi, Vice President of Treccani.

In Bari, the second event will take place on Sunday, October 12, at the Teatro Piccinni, and on Monday, October 13, at the Teatro Petruzzelli, under the title "Welcome back to Bari, dear Camilleri."

In Rome, the third major event, from October 22 to November 29, will be the Dante Alighieri Society's celebration of the centenary of the writer's birth with a major exhibition at the Palazzo Firenze.

Titled "Scenes, Voices, Accents, Writings: The Infinite Theatre of Andrea Camilleri," the exhibition pays tribute to his multifaceted creativity, the result of a collaboration between Giulio Ferroni, the Cultural Organizational Unit of the Dante Alighieri Society, the Andrea Camilleri Fund, and Arthemisia.

Visitors will embark on a journey that encompasses all aspects of Camilleri's artistic work, from his groundbreaking literary works to his unforgettable theatrical and television creations. As they tour the exhibition halls, they will discover, above all, how Camilleri successfully connected personal memory with civic engagement.

One of the exhibition's focal points is undoubtedly the exploration of the author's relationship with the Italian language . Its pages, rich in linguistic inventions that merge Sicilian and Italian, will be analyzed through interactive media that reveal their musicality and originality. The "Camilleri della Dante" exhibition promises to be one of the most anticipated cultural events of the year.