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
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