Donna Leon's Books | Crime Books

Biography

Donna Leon is not a native Italian. She was born in New Jersey in 1942 and can trace her grandparents back to Spain, Germany and Ireland. She was brought up in a Catholic family with pronounced political views; her parents taught her that voting Republican was a mortal sin.

After studying English Literature, she worked her way around the world, eventually landing a job with the University of Maryland teaching English Literature to the American Military in Vicenza, Italy, a city not so far from Venice, where she made her home.

The End of a Teaching Career

After joking with friends about murdering a conductor whilst visiting the Venetian opera house, she wrote her first book, Death at La Fenice. The novel sat in a draw for a couple of years until friends persuaded her to enter the 1991 Japanese Suntory crime fiction competition. It won, and HarperCollins bought the book with a contract for two more novels. It was the death knell for her career teaching the American armed forces.

“The trouble with — the danger with Literature, if you talk about Literature, you end up talking about ideas of society, ideas of right and wrong, ideas of religion, of justice, of blah, blah, blah. And I thought it would be best if these young American military people and I no longer discussed these issues. So, to spare them having to listen to me and to spare me having to listen to them, I decided to stop. It became upsetting for me to realize some of the ideas that people, who were pretending to get a university education, could have in their heads; and the abysmal ignorance of the students became too heavy a cross for me to bear. Not stupidity, because they’re not stupid, but they are abysmally ignorant. And I don’t think that at my age, I want to be in the company of people like that.” (Italian Mysteries)

Commissario Guido Brunetti

Since then, Leon has written thirty novels about urbane Commissario Guido Brunetti of the Venetian Questura and one stand-alone novel, The Jewels of Paradise. She has also been involved in a couple of spin-offs, most notably a cookbook, A Taste of Venice: At Table with Brunetti — I enjoy a cookbook almost as much as a good thriller.

Donna Leon’s books are slow and thoughtful. She builds her plots painstakingly and carefully. These are not books for the action-loving; she is more interested in relationships, ethical issues and justice.

Italian Corruption

In interviews, Leon says that her writing isn’t political, but she doesn’t hold back from targeting moral issues and corruption in Italian society. For thirty years, she has targeted, amongst other things: pornography, political corruption, people trafficking, sex tourism, the Italian judicial system, the military, the Catholic church and environmental issues — all with a very matter-of-fact take on corrupt organisations.

Her books have been wildly successful and translated into every major European language except Italian. The reason why not is a little unclear. Leon states that she doesn’t want to be famous in her backyard in some interviews. In others, you sense that she might worry about what her Italian neighbours would think of them.

Unless somebody translates them, we will never really know.

“…in Italy, people have no illusions about it. They know that all politicians are corrupt, they know that all institutions are corrupt, and they never pretend that they are anything but that. I find that very refreshing…”

“Italians know about human nature — they understand human nature perhaps better than anyone else does. They know that people are weak and greedy and lazy and dishonest and they just try to make the best of it; to work around it.” (Italian Mysteries)