Diego Zandel

Diego Zandel was born in 1948 in the refugee camp of Servigliano to parents from Rijeka, but grew up in the Giuliano-Dalmatia Village in Rome, which gathered Istrian, Rijeka and Dalmatian exiles fleeing from Tito's Yugoslavia. This origin, for its existential, as well as historical and geopolitical significance, as well as Greece, in particular the island of Kos, from which the family of his first wife Anna, who died in 2012, was originally from, will have a lot of relevance in his books. Therefore, all his narrative production often appears to be linked to autobiographical experiences, in which the taste for travel, memory, history and adventure are skilfully intertwined, with widenings to the landscape and the environment capable of keeping the reader captivated. His novels include Massacre for a President, Mondadori 1981, An Istrian Story, Rusconi 1987, Dangerous Cruise, Mondadori 1993, Oltre Edizioni 2020, Operation Venus, Mondadori, 1996, The Boundaries of Hate, Aragno 2002, The Man of Kos, Hobby&Work 2004, Oltre Edizioni 2021, The Greek Brother, Hacca, 2010, The Mute Witnesses (Mursia 2011) Being Bob Lang, Hacca 2012. Among his non-fiction and literary works, Andrić's Invitation to Reading (written with Giacomo Scotti) Mursia 1981, Balkanica - Journey into Southeast Europe through Contemporary Literature, Novecento Libri, 2018, Apology of Reading - Reflections of an Inveterate Bibliophile, Historica, 2020, Guilty Legacy, Voland 2023, forthcoming Un affare balcanico, Voland, 2024

He is also one of the authors of the docufilm Hotel Sarajevo, the brainchild of Andrea Di Consoli and produced by Clipper Media and Rai Cinema, directed by Barbara Cupisti.

In 2023 he was awarded the Fulvio Tomizza Award, as a "Personality who over time has distinguished himself in the concrete affirmation of the ideals of mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence among the people of our lands", i.e. of the eastern border.

In 2023 he received the Tomizza Prize, while the municipality of Servigliano awarded him honorary citizenship.