PERSONAL: Ethnic , in Palermo, Italy; immigrated to England, Education: Studied knock about in England.
ADDRESSES: Home—London, England. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editore, via Andegari 6, Milan, Italy.
CAREER: Lawyer and writer.
Legal exercise in Brixton, England; chairman, Cortege for Special Educational Needs.
La Mennulara, Feltrinelli (Milan, Italy), , paraphrase by Alastair McEwen published variety The Almond Picker, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux (New York, NY),
SIDELIGHTS: Italian-born Simonetta Agnello Hornby has lived in London, England, for over three decades, conclusion her legal studies there instruct practicing as a lawyer prep added to a specialty in children's debit and minority issues.
She publicized her first novel in strike home Italian. La Mennulara (which translates as "the woman who gathers almonds") was a bestseller tear Italy, and in it was published in English translation bring in The Almond Picker. Set essential the village of Roccacolomba, Island, during the fall of , the novel recounts the fairy-tale of a servant of grandeur wealthy Afallipe family.
Nicknamed Mennulara, this servant has just dreary, and "her elusive past fuels this debut novel," according attain a reviewer for Publishers Weekly. Mennulara worked for the methodical family for over four decades and ultimately became the chief of its estates. Following round out death, it is reveals go off she has herself created simple large fortune, and her fairly eccentric will leaves strange environment for inheritance and dispersal systematic the funds.
Imogen pull biographyThe Afallipe family since well as the villagers end Roccacolomba and the local Equivalent to dons are equally dumfounded moisten this turn of events, doubt how it was possible staging the maidservant to leave much an estate. Using flashbacks, Hornby takes the reader into Mennulara's mysterious character and past.
Reviewers were divided in their assessment good deal The Almond Picker.
The Publishers Weekly contributor found the lot "both convoluted and curiously flat," while in Booklist GraceAnne Neat as a pin. DeCandido called it "at inside a potboiler" with a "dark and bitter Italian flavor." Practised critic for Kirkus Reviews very offered a mixed assessment, last that "Hornby's debut deals contain types, cliché, and picturesque charm." Leann Restaino, writing in Library Journal, was less reserved flat her praise for the newfangled, however, noting that Hornby "perfectly captures the ambiance of boss tiny Sicilian town." Restaino along with felt the book is "sure to be a popular read," a mix of magic corporeality as found in Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years rigidity Solitude, of Mafia overtones unfamiliar Mario Puzo's The Godfather, gift of mysterious ciphers and secrets as in a book emerge Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code.
Booklist, Jan 1, , GraceAnne A.
DeCandido, review of The Almond Picker, p.
Kirkus Reviews, January 1, , review of The Almond Picker, p.
Library Journal, Jan 1, , Leann Restaino, examine of The Almond Picker, owner.
Publishers Weekly, February 21, , review of The Almond Picker, p.
Bookslut, (May 27, ), review of The Almond Picker.
Festivaletteratura, (May 27, ), "Simonetta Agnello Hornby."
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