El Barquito Chiquitito

Antonio Tabucchi was born in Pisa, Italy on September 24, 1943. He studied literature and philosophy at the city's university. He was a writer and academic. He was professor of Portuguese literature at the University of Siena and the Italian Cultural Institute in Lisbon. His works include Piazza d'Italia, Piccoli Equivoci Senza Importanza (Little Misunderstandings of No Importance), Requiem, uma Alucinaçaõ (Requiem: A Hallucination), Tristano Muore (Tristan Is Dying), and Racconti con Figure. Many of his works were adapted into films including Sostiene Pereira (Pereira Maintains) and Notturno Indiano (Indian Nocturne). In addition to his fictional writing, he translated works by Fernando Pessoa and other Portuguese writers into Italian. He received numerous literary prizes including the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in France. In 1993, he was one of the founder members of the International Parliament of Writers and contributed articles to its journal, Autodafé. He died of cancer on March 25, 2012 at the age of 68.

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