Franco Cuomo

Who was Franco Cuomo?

Franco Cuomo was an Italian journalist and writer.

Best known for his historical novels set in the Middle Ages, he was short-listed twice for the Strega Award, first with Gunther d'Amalfi, cavaliere templare in 1990 and then Il Codice Macbeth in 1997.

Cuomo gained a degree in law and then simultaneously worked in journalism and the theatre, moving on to fiction and historical studies.

His most recent works included the novels I sotterranei del cielo, Il tatuaggio, and Anime perdute. Notturno veneziano con messa nera e fantasmi d'amore and the nonfiction I dieci examined the Italian scientists who signed the "Racial Manifesto" in 1938 leading to the introduction of racial laws.

Among his other works of fiction are I semidei, a spy story set in contemporary Italy with clear references to many of the major figures involved in Tangentopoli inspired by his work as journalist, Il signore degli specchi on the life of Nostradamus, and Scroll on the legend that Shakespeare may not have been English. He is also the author a five-volume series on the origins of Europe, Il romanzo di Carlo Magno, and a biography of Rita da Cascia, Santa Rita degli impossibili.