Aurelio Zen
Encyclopedia
Aurelio Zen is a fictional Italian
detective created by the British crime writer Michael Dibdin
.
, won the 'Gold Dagger
' award of 1988. This series of detective novels provide a penetrating insight into the less visible aspects of Italian society over the last twenty years. The earlier books have a lightness of touch that gradually becomes much darker. The character of Zen himself is anti-hero
ic, which adds much to the books' irony and black humour. Dibdin died in 2007 shortly after finishing the last book in the series, End Games, which appeared posthumously in July 2007.
Middle aged and already somewhat jaded when we first meet him, he has had a long career in the State Police and is in a relatively senior position. Unafraid to employ radical and even underhanded methods when he feels them appropriate, Zen struggles to manage the competing demands of his aged mother, his girlfriend and his job, sometimes accepting an assignment simply to escape from domestic pressures. Heart mostly in the right place, he does his best to make sense of whatever confronts him.
and Left Bank Pictures
produced three feature-length dramas based on the books. The series was filmed on location in Rome during 2010 and aired in January 2011. It has since been axed by the BBC after just one series but the producers hoped to make further adaptations for another broadcaster. English actor Rufus Sewell
starred in the lead role, Italian actress Caterina Murino
played Tania Moretti. The dialogue was in English.
Italian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
detective created by the British crime writer Michael Dibdin
Michael Dibdin
Michael Dibdin , was a British crime writer.-Life:Dibdin was born in Wolverhampton, the son of a physicist, and was brought up from the age of seven in Lisburn, Northern Ireland where he attended Friends' School...
.
Series
The first of the stories RatkingRatking (novel)
Ratking is a novel by Michael Dibdin, and is the first book in the popular Aurelio Zen series, introducing readers to the commissario's morally shady world. On publication it won the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger for fiction.-Plot:...
, won the 'Gold Dagger
Gold Dagger
The Gold Dagger Award was an award given annually by the Crime Writers' Association for the best crime novel of the year.For its first five years, the organization's top honor was known as the Crossed Red Herring Award....
' award of 1988. This series of detective novels provide a penetrating insight into the less visible aspects of Italian society over the last twenty years. The earlier books have a lightness of touch that gradually becomes much darker. The character of Zen himself is anti-hero
Anti-hero
In fiction, an antihero is generally considered to be a protagonist whose character is at least in some regards conspicuously contrary to that of the archetypal hero, and is in some instances its antithesis in which the character is generally useless at being a hero or heroine when they're...
ic, which adds much to the books' irony and black humour. Dibdin died in 2007 shortly after finishing the last book in the series, End Games, which appeared posthumously in July 2007.
Style
Erratic, emotional and all too human, Zen negotiates the constantly shifting political terrain of both his job and his country through the 1990s and into the new century.Middle aged and already somewhat jaded when we first meet him, he has had a long career in the State Police and is in a relatively senior position. Unafraid to employ radical and even underhanded methods when he feels them appropriate, Zen struggles to manage the competing demands of his aged mother, his girlfriend and his job, sometimes accepting an assignment simply to escape from domestic pressures. Heart mostly in the right place, he does his best to make sense of whatever confronts him.
Books in series
- RatkingRatking (novel)Ratking is a novel by Michael Dibdin, and is the first book in the popular Aurelio Zen series, introducing readers to the commissario's morally shady world. On publication it won the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger for fiction.-Plot:...
(1988) - VendettaVendetta (novel)Vendetta is a novel by Michael Dibdin, and is the second book in the popular Aurelio Zen series.Zen has earned a return to the fold of actual police work, but now Officials in a high government ministry are desperate to finger someone--anyone--for the murder of an eccentric billionaire, whose...
(1990) - CabalCabal (Michael Dibdin novel)Cabal is a novel by Michael Dibdin, and the third entry in the Aurelio Zen series.When, one dark night in November, Prince Ludovico Ruspanti fell a hundred and fifty feet to his death in the chapel at St. Peter's, Rome, there were a number of questions to be answered. The answer the Vatican...
(1992) - Dead LagoonDead LagoonDead Lagoon is a novel by Michael Dibdin, and is the fourth entry in the popular Aurelio Zen series.Moonlighting, Zen engineers a posting to his home town of Venice on a pretext in order to investigate the disappearance of an American millionaire on behalf of his American ex girlfriend...
(1994) - Cosi Fan TuttiCosi Fan TuttiCosi Fan Tutti is a novel by Michael Dibdin, and is the fifth entry in the popular Aurelio Zen series.Under a cloud again, Zen thinks he has found himself a backwater sinecure in Naples, where he can coast towards retirement...
(1996) - A Long FinishA Long FinishA Long Finish is a novel by Michael Dibdin, and is the sixth entry in the popular Aurelio Zen series.- Synopsis :After his adventures under sun-drenched Neapolitan skies in Cosi Fan Tutti, Aurelio Zen finds himself reluctantly back in Rome, sneezing in the damp wine cellar of a retired but still...
(1998) - Blood RainBlood Rain (novel)Blood Rain is a novel by Michael Dibdin, and is the seventh entry in the popular Aurelio Zen series.-Plot:Aurelio Zen has got the posting he always dreaded--he has been sent to Sicily, home of the Mafia, albeit in a nondescript liaison job...
(1999) - And Then You DieAnd Then You DieAnd Then You Die is a novel by Michael Dibdin, and is the eighth entry in the popular Aurelio Zen series.-Plot:Aurelio Zen is back, but nobody's supposed to know it...After months in hospital recovering from a bomb attack on his car, Zen is lying low under a false name at a beach resort on the...
(2002) - MedusaMedusa (novel)Medusa is a novel by Michael Dibdin, and is the ninth entry in the popular Aurelio Zen series.-Plot:When a group of Austrian cavers exploring in the Italian Alps comes across human remains at the bottom of a deep shaft, everyone assumes the death was accidental. But then the body is removed from...
(2003) - Back to BolognaBack to BolognaBack to Bologna is a novel by Michael Dibdin, and is the tenth entry in the popular Aurelio Zen series.-Plot:Zen is on sick leave after a stomach operation and is feeling a shadow of himself. His relationship with his partner, Gemma, is also not going well...
(2005) - End GamesEnd GamesEnd Games is a novel by Michael Dibdin. It is the 11th entry in the Aurelio Zen series, and also, given Dibdin's death in 2007, the last.-Plot:...
(2007)
Television adaptation
BBC ScotlandBBC Scotland
BBC Scotland is a constituent part of the British Broadcasting Corporation, the publicly-funded broadcaster of the United Kingdom. It is, in effect, the national broadcaster for Scotland, having a considerable amount of autonomy from the BBC's London headquarters, and is run by the BBC Trust, who...
and Left Bank Pictures
Left Bank Pictures
Left Bank Pictures is an English film and television production company. It was formed in 2007 by Andy Harries, formerly controller of drama, comedy and film at Granada Productions, and Francis Hopkinson and Marigo Kehoe...
produced three feature-length dramas based on the books. The series was filmed on location in Rome during 2010 and aired in January 2011. It has since been axed by the BBC after just one series but the producers hoped to make further adaptations for another broadcaster. English actor Rufus Sewell
Rufus Sewell
Rufus Frederik Sewell is an English actor. In film, he has appeared in The Woodlanders, Dangerous Beauty, Dark City, A Knight's Tale, The Illusionist, Tristan and Isolde, and Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence. On television, he starred in the 2010 mini-series The Pillars of the Earth...
starred in the lead role, Italian actress Caterina Murino
Caterina Murino
-Biography:She was born in Cagliari, Sardinia, and initially wanted to be a doctor, but switched career paths to pageantry after twice failing the medical school entrance exams. She came fourth in the 1996 Miss Italy contest...
played Tania Moretti. The dialogue was in English.