Melania G. Mazzucco was born in Rome in 1966.
Her work has been published in 21 languages. She has written subjects and screenplays for films, inventing stories or re-writing those of others; while for theater she developed Una pallida felicità (A Pale Happiness), which was performed theaters such as the Teatro Stabile in Turin, Piccolo Teatro in Milan, Teatro Valle in Rome, and won the Gold Medal for Italian Dramaturgy in 1996.
In 1996, she published her first novel, Il bacio della Medusa, and her second two years later, La camera di Baltus. Her most recent book, Vita, won the 2003 Strega Prize, Italy’s leading literary award and was named by Publisher’s Weekly as one of the 10 best novels of 2005.