Donna Leon

Donna Leon, an American-Swiss writer, was born on September 28, 1942, in Montclair, New Jersey. She studied English literature in the United States, Siena, and Perugia, taught at American schools in Switzerland, Iran, China, and Saudi Arabia, and from 1981 to 1995 at the University of Maryland, Vicenza. Her dissertation on Jane Austen was left unfinished due to the loss of materials during the 1979 Iranian revolution. She has lived in Venice, and since 2007 in Val Müstair, Switzerland, where she obtained Swiss citizenship in 2020. A passionate lover of Baroque opera, especially Handel, Leon avoids translating her works into Italian in order to preserve her privacy in Venice.

She gained international fame with a series of crime novels about Commissioner Guido Brunetti, a Venetian policeman. The first novel, Death at the Teatro La Fenice (1992), introduces Brunetti, an intellectual who struggles with corruption and moral dilemmas in an atmospherically depicted Venice. The series, with over 30 novels (e.g. Death in a Foreign Land, Acqua alta, Nobility, Self-willed Behaviour), has been translated into 35 languages, but not into Italian, at her request. The novels are known for their social criticism, detailed descriptions of Venice, and themes such as corruption, tourism, and environmental problems. In addition to the series, she wrote Brunetti's Cookbook (2010), Handel's Bestiary (2010), and a collection of essays My Venice (2013). Leon has won numerous awards, and her novels often top the world's bestseller lists. Her style combines suspense, psychological depth, and a love of Venice, making her one of the most respected authors in the crime genre.