Sergio Atzeni

Who was Sergio Atzeni?

Sergio Atzeni was a Sardinian writer.

Born in Capoterra, southern Sardinia, he moved to Cagliari where, as a journalist, he worked for some of the most important Sardinian newspapers. He also became a member of the Italian Communist Party, but later left the party, being disullusioned with politics. In 1986, he left Sardinia and travelled across Europe, but in the last part of his life he settled in Turin where he wrote his most important novels, including Il figlio di Bakunìn, Passavamo sulla terra leggeri and Il quinto passo è l'addio. In 1995, he died in Carloforte while swimming in the sea during a holiday back in Sardinia.

All of Atzeni's works are set in Sardinia and were written in Italian. He experimented different techniques and styles across his novels. Most notably, he used a very original language that fused elegant literary Italian and the "patter" used by the working-class in Cagliari and Sardinia, where many words and sayings are borrowed from the Sardinian language. In this way Atzeni reproduces the immediacy of the spoken language in his novels.