The Turin writer Ernesto Ferrero dies after a long illness at the age of 85. winner of the Strega Prize in 2000 and director of the Salone del Libro in Turin from 1998 to 2016. For more than 60 years he was a protagonist of the Italian publishing world, starting from the literary direction of Einaudi from 1984 to 1989, where he met his wife Carla and became friend of Primo Levi and Italo Calvino. He dedicated a 2007 essay to them and «Italo», released a few weeks ago, respectively. He had also been a translator of Cèline, Flaubert and Perec and author of novels, essays and children’s books.
In 2000 the Strega prize arrived for «N», a novel about Napoleon’s exile on Elba. He had also been general secretary of Bollati Boringhieri, editorial director of Garzanti and literary director of Arnoldo Mondadori Editore. The experience in the publishing houses was told in 2005 in «The best years of our life» and in 2022 «Family album» was published by Einaudi which describes the relationship with literary greats such as Einaudi, Morante, Feltrinelli, Fruttero and Lucentini, Ceronetti, Bobbio, Pavese, Foa, Garboli and Garzanti.
Ferrero had been honorary president of the Primo Levi International Study Center in Turin and had chaired many juries of literary prizes, including the Strega of which he was on the steering committee
