Giuseppe Pontiggia was an Italian

Italian literature

Italian literature is literature written in the Italian language, particularly within Italy. It may also refer to literature written by Italians or in Italy in other languages spoken in Italy, often languages that are closely related to modern Italian....

 writer and literary critic.

He was born in Como

Como

Como is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy.It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como....

, and moved to Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

 with his family in 1948. In 1959 he graduated from the Università Cattolica

Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore is a privately-owned Catholic university founded in 1921 by Agostino Gemelli. Its main campus is located in Milan, Italy with satellite campuses in Brescia, Piacenza, Cremona, Rome, and Campobasso...

 in Milan with a thesis on Italo Svevo

Italo Svevo

Aron Ettore Schmitz , better known by the pseudonym Italo Svevo, was an Italian writer and businessman, author of novels, plays, and short stories.- Biography :...

. After a first unnoticed short story anthology published in 1959, Pontiggia, encouraged by Elio Vittorini

Elio Vittorini

Elio Vittorini was an Italian writer and novelist. He was a contemporary of Cesare Pavese and an influential voice in the modernist school of novel writing. His best-known work is the anti-fascist novel Conversations in Sicily, for which he was jailed when it was published in 1941. The first U.S...

, decided to devote himself entirely to writing starting from 1961.

His first novel was L'arte della fuga of 1968. Pontiggia won the Premio Strega in 1989 with La grande sera and the Premio Campiello

Premio Campiello

The Premio Campiello is an annual Italian literary prize.A Jury of Literary Experts identifies books published during the year and, in a public hearing, selects five of those as finalists. These books are called il Premio Selezione Campiello...

 in 2001 with Nati due volte. He also wrote numerous articles and essays.

He died in Milan in 2003 by a circulatory stroke.

Essays

• Il giardino delle Esperidi (1984)
• Le sabbie immobili (1991)
• L'isola volante (1996)
• I contemporanei del futuro (1998)

Novels and short story anthologies

• La morte in banca (1959)
• L'arte della fuga (1968; 1990 revised)
• Il giocatore invisibile (1978)
• Il raggio d'ombra (1983)
• La grande sera (1989)
• Vite di uomini non illustri (1994)
• Nati due volte (2000)
• Prima persona (2002)
• Il residence delle ombre cinesi (2003, posthumous)