Etruscans * Middle Age * American History * Science Fiction
Bibliography
* * reading
* * Fantasy
Mariangela
Cerrino was born in Turin; when
still very young, she started studying American history at the Centre for
American Studies of Turin and her first novel, set at the time of the American
revolution, was published by Sonzogno of Milan when
she was only seventeen. From 1966 to 1973, this publishing house brought out
fourteen of her novels, with covers designed by G. Crepax.
Later she passed to Frontiera Edizioni
of Bologna, that published another five novels of hers set in the epic period
of American history, as well as reprinting some titles already brought out by Sonzogno. Ms. Cerrino, who wrote under the name of May Ionnes Cherry, could count on a large and faithful reading
public in this genre.
At the
beginning of the Eighties, she started to write science fiction and fantasy
novels, in a search for a new narrative style, free from the rigid pattern
imposed by the historical reconstruction she was tied to her first books,
which, however, remains her favourite form.
Her first work,
a short story called "Passaggio ad Eridani" was immediately bought by RAI for the
programme Alba del Domani;
in this way she became a figure of growing importance in the world of Italian
science fiction. In 1983 she won the Ppremio Italia
for the short story "Il Segreto di Mavi-Su" and she published
her first novels in the magazine Pulp of Turin. Her stories were also published
in Omni, in Futura of Peruzzi
Editore, in the Millemondi Mondadori Collection, in the Encyclopedia
of Science Fiction of Fanucci, and in Solaris, as
well as in newspapers and weekly magazines. In 1989, she published her most
important science fiction novel, "L’Ultima Terra
Oscura" (Nord,
However,
in 1990, she turned again to historical research, blending it with her lifelong
passionate interest for archaeology: from this came the book
"I cieli Dimenticati", the first hardcover volume of a trilogy
dedicated to the Etruscans, published in 1992 by Longanesi
of Milan, that won the Premio Italia as best novel of
the year. The second volume of the Etruscan cycle, "La Via degli Dei", was published by Longanesi
in 1993, and the last volume of the trilogy, "La Porta
sulla Notte", Longanesi, was brought out in June 1995, and again won the Premio Italia that year.
The
complete cycle, printed in a single volume of approximately one thousand pages,
was published in
In 1998,
the Trilogy was presented in a new version in the cycle "Rasna -
Ms.
Cerrino, who had always been keenly interested in history and ancient cultures,
and active in the discovery of the past, of the tradition and the language of
her own region (Piedmont, Savoy and Dauphiné), then
devoted herself to a project she had cultivated for a long time.
The result of this are IL SEGNO DEL DRAGO and
IL SEGRETO DELL'ALCHIMISTA, the first two of a series of four novels set in the heart of
Both were
published in
In year
2008 was published LISIDRANDA, a fantasy trilogy (L'ALBERO DEL MONDO, LE TERRE
DELL'ANIMA,
In the
same year was reprinted LE STORIE DELL'EPOCA MU by MONDADORI,
The whole
Midle Age's project
- the novels IL SEGNO DEL DRAGO, IL SEGRETO DELL'ALCHIMISTA, IL CUSTODE
DELL'ARCOBALENO AND IL CALICE SPEZZATO – was published in spring 2010 by
SUSALIBRI EDITRICE in a very accurate
edition with covers by Angela Betta Casale, a very quoted painter.
For
ALACRÁN EDIZIONI was published, also in spring 2010, IL MARGINE DELL'ALBA, historical
novels.
Mariangela
Cerrino lives in 
the country near Turin, with her beautiful cat named
Tamasine.
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