The first novel of the Italian writer Andrea De Carlo (b. 1952), Il treno di panna, (Creamtrain), came out in 1981, prefaced by Italo Calvino. It won the reputable Premio Comisso prize. De Carlo, too, has worked in the film industry, serving as assistant director to Federico Fellini, for example. In 1983 he made a TV film, Le facce di Fellini (Fellini's Faces), on the actors of the legendary director. De Carlo's third novel, Macno (1984), was a bestseller and was translated to numerous languages. The novel is about the use of power and its relationship with public media in an anonymous dictatorship ruled by Macno, a former rock star and TV reporter. De Carlo's fifth novel, Due di due (1989, Two of Two), soon became a cult novel in Italy. In 1984, De Carlo accompanied Fellini to Mexico with the purpose of writing a screenplay on the works of Carlos Castaneda. The writer describes the strange things that happened during this journey - such as the disappearance of Castaneda - in his novel, Yucatan, which came out in 1986. His latest novel, Nel momento (1999, Here and Now) is about the role of chance in the pursuit of happiness and love. De Carlo's works have been translated into seventeen languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, Norwegian, Danish and Russian. In his youth, De Carlo studied literature and history (he wrote his thesis on anarchist communities during the Spanish Civil War), and has worked as a photographer, gardener, waiter and teacher of Italian in America and in Australia, and played the guitar in various blues bands. De Carlo has residences in Milano, Rome and Urbino.
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