Italian crime writing great Andrea Camilleri died on Wednesday at Rome's Santo Spirito hospital, sources said. The creator of Inspector Montalbano, arguably Italy's most famous fictional detective, had been critically ill since suffering cardiac arrest a month ago.
Camilleri, 93, became a best-selling author after he turned 60, and his books have sold millions of copies worldwide.
The TV adaptation of Montalbano's adventures, as well as a spin-off, The Young Montalbano, are big hits in Italy and around the world too.
Actor Luca Zingaretti, famous in Italy for his long-running television portrayal of fictional Sicilian detective Salvo Montalbano, was among the first to pay tribute to Camilleri after his death. "Now you have departed and left me with an emptiness that cannot be filled. But I know that every time I say this, even alone, in my head, that 'I am Montalbano!', then you will have left smiling, perhaps smoking a cigarette and winking at me as a sign of understanding, like the last time we met in Siracusa.
Farewell maestro and friend. Rest in peace, Yours, Luca," he wrote on Instagram. The television series was seen by a total of about 1.2 billion viewers over several years on the Italian state broadcaster RAI, as well as being a huge international hit.
President Sergio Mattarella and Premier Giuseppe Conte both paid tribute to Camilleri too. "The theatre and television adaptations of his works gave another dimension to his literary legacy, bringing many people closer to the world of books in the process," Mattarella said in a message to the writer's family. "Andrea Camilleri leaves a vacuum in Italian culture and inside those who loved reading his stories and were attracted to the characters formed by his creativity". In a tweet, Conte described Camilleri as a "master of irony and wisdom.
"With boundless creativity, he told the story of his Sicily and his rich fantasy world," the premier continued.
"We lose a writer, an intellectual, who was able to speak to everyone".
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