Francesca Sanvitale, one of Italy's most renowned contemporary authors, was born in Milan on 17 May 1928 into an aristocratic but impoverished family from Emilia-Romagna. At the age of twelve her family moved to Florence, where she attended school and subsequently the university. In 1952 she graduated with a degree in Italian literature under her mentor, Giuseppe de Robertis, a prominent literary critic of the time. After graduation Sanvitale worked as a journalist in Florence and as a reader and editor for various publishing houses, among them Bompiani and Mondadori. She was also a manuscript reader for Elio Vittorini, an influential writer who worked for the publisher Einaudi. This demanding apprenticeship forged Sanvitale's literary experience in two ways: it provided her with an extensive knowledge of European and world cultures and it helped her to refine her writing.

In 1961 Sanvitale moved to Rome, where she worked for RAI, the national television...