Valerio Massimo Manfredi is an archaeologist and specialist in the topography of the ancient world. He has taught at prestigious universities in Italy and abroad and led expeditions and excavations at various Mediterranean sites. He has written numerous articles and academic papers as well as successful works of fiction. He is also a television presenter of cultural programmes on national and international networks and a contributor to the weekly newsmagazine Panorama and the national daily il Messaggero.
“Hidden” Archanes.
It may be a strange name, but it is appropriate for an almost invisible village, wedged between the hills of the island of Crete, rich in mysterious caves that hide legends and, perhaps, ancient treasures. The kind that an Italian archaeologist, for work and passion, loves to dig out of oblivion. Like the fabulous treasures of the Iraq Museum, that he held in his hands years ago, in Baghdad, and that are now missing, stolen during the looting of the museum in 2003. But perhaps not entirely lost …
With this archaeological detective story Valerio Massimo Manfredi confirms his place as one of Italy’s leading novelists, but it is not only a world of buried civilisations that animates his pen, in this collection he also gives us an elegant story set in Italy during the Lombard invasions, an adventure of the police colonel Reggiani, a thriller and engaging spy story that takes us into the near future. A variety of guises for a unique story-telling talent, an Italian writer dedicated but not limited to adventure, that the whole world envies.