Vuelve el inspector Salvo Montalbano y su particular forma de ver el mundo desde el imaginario pueblo de Vigàta, en Sicilia.
Tercera entrega de la serie del comisario que ha conseguido un espacio propio y original en la literatura policiaca contemporánea.
Sus anteriores andanzas han trazado su polifacético perfil que, como demuestra esta nueva aventura, está lejos de agotarse en el simple estereotipo.
En esta ocasión el comisario debe investigar el asesinato de un comerciante jubilado, cuya amante, una joven tunecina desaparecida tras el crimen, es objeto de todas las sospechas. Sin embargo, las pesquisas guían a Montalbano hacia el turbio mundo de los servicios secretos y su sucia guerra contra el terrorismo internacional. La razón de Estado se ve sometida a su implacable instinto de justicia, «quijotesco» según uno de los agentes secretos. Al mismo tiempo, la trama nos reserva sorpresas inusitadas, como un Montalbano profundamente conmovido por el destino del hijo de la joven acusada hasta el punto de proponerle matrimonio a su tan paciente como lejana compañera Livia.
Como todas las obras de Camilleri que tanto disfrutan sus cientos de miles de lectores en todo el mundo, El ladrón de meriendas es un irónico pero tierno recorrido por la cara más humana del homo sapiens, con personajes cuyo realismo surge precisamente de la penetrante y compasiva mirada de don Salvo. El duro universo de la inmigración ilegal, de los barrios populares mediterráneos, de los fríos burócratas al servicio del Estado, o el de la solidaridad femenina aparecen plasmados con pasmosa nitidez en cada una de las escenas de la novela, convirtiéndonos inevitablemente en testigos y cómplices no sólo de la intriga sino también de un entorno que acaba siéndonos sorprendentemente familiar.
Andrea Camilleri was an Italian writer. He is considered one of the greatest Italian writers of both 20th and 21st centuries.
Originally from Porto Empedocle, Sicily, Camilleri began studies at the Faculty of Literature in 1944, without concluding them, meanwhile publishing poems and short stories. Around this time he joined the Italian Communist Party.
From 1948 to 1950 Camilleri studied stage and film direction at the Silvio D'Amico Academy of Dramatic Arts, and began to take on work as a director and screenwriter, directing especially plays by Pirandello and Beckett. As a matter of fact, his parents knew Pirandello and were even distant friends, as he tells in his essay on Pirandello "Biography of the changed son". His most famous works, the Montalbano series show many pirandellian elements: for example, the wild olive tree that helps Montalbano think, is on stage in his late work "The giants of the mountain"
With RAI, Camilleri worked on several TV productions, such as Inspector Maigret with Gino Cervi. In 1977 he returned to the Academy of Dramatic Arts, holding the chair of Movie Direction, and occupying it for 20 years.
In 1978 Camilleri wrote his first novel Il Corso Delle Cose ("The Way Things Go"). This was followed by Un Filo di Fumo ("A Thread of Smoke") in 1980. Neither of these works enjoyed any significant amount of popularity.
In 1992, after a long pause of 12 years, Camilleri once more took up novel-writing. A new book, La Stagione della Caccia ("The Hunting Season") turned out to be a best-seller.
In 1994 Camilleri published the first in a long series of novels: La forma dell'Acqua (The Shape of Water) featured the character of Inspector Montalbano, a fractious Sicilian detective in the police force of Vigàta, an imaginary Sicilian town. The series is written in Italian but with a substantial sprinkling of Sicilian phrases and grammar. The name Montalbano is an homage to the Spanish writer Manuel Vázquez Montalbán; the similarities between Montalban's Pepe Carvalho and Camilleri's fictional detective are remarkable. Both writers make great play of their protagonists' gastronomic preferences.
This feature provides an interesting quirk which has become something of a fad among his readership even in mainland Italy. The TV adaptation of Montalbano's adventures, starring the perfectly-cast Luca Zingaretti, further increased Camilleri's popularity to such a point that in 2003 Camilleri's home town, Porto Empedocle - on which Vigàta is modelled - took the extraordinary step of changing its official denomination to that of Porto Empedocle Vigàta, no doubt with an eye to capitalising on the tourism possibilities thrown up by the author's work.
In 1998 Camilleri won the Nino Martoglio International Book Award.
Camilleri lived in Rome where he worked as a TV and theatre director. About 10 million copies of his novels have been sold to date, and are becoming increasingly popular in the UK and North America.
In addition to the degree of popularity brought him by the novels, in recent months Andrea Camilleri has become even more of a media icon thanks to the parodies aired on an RAI radio show, where popular comedian, TV-host and impression artist Fiorello presents him as a raspy voiced, caustic character, madly in love with cigarettes and smoking (Camilleri is well-known for his love of tobacco).
He received an honorary degree from University of Pisa in 2005.
En esta tercera novela de Montalbano es donde aparece más su lado humano. Además de su defensa incansable de la ley e incorruptibilidad, descubrimos que tiene sus cositas como el resto de los mortales. Puede ser también machista, celoso y egocéntrico, un planeta alrededor del cual orbitan los demás.
Este descubrimiento hace que tengas ganas de remangarle un bofetón alguna vez, por supuesto, pero también lo dibuja más interesante, más real, más antihéroe.
El resto, como en los anteriores libros de la saga: un texto que devoras, muchos personajes interesantes acompañando al commisario y mucha comida siciliana aderezándolo todo.