Vincenzo Cerami (1940-2013) is not just highly acclaimed as a novelist and nonfiction writer, but is also famous for his contribution to Italian cinema as the screenwriter of celebrated films such as the 1997 production La vita e bella (Life is beautiful), which he co-authored with Roberto Benigni. Un borghese piccolo piccolo (A Very Normal Man), written in 1976, is Cerami's first novel and it brought him instant acclaim.
Isobel Grave is Cassamarca lecturer in Italian language and literature at the University of South Australia. She is a NAATI qualified professional translator and interpreter and a published translator of poetry from Italian into English.