One of Italy's most admired and popular novelists, Sandro Veronesi originally graduated in architecture before turning to writing, when, in 1984, he published his first book, a collection of poems, (Il resto del cielo) which has so far remained his only foray into poetry. His first novel, Per dove parte questo treno allegro (1988) explored family relationships, as have subsequent novels such as Gli sfiorati (1990), Venite venite B-52 (1995) and La forza del passato (2000). In 2005 his novel Caos Calmo won him the Italy's highest literary award the Strega Prize, and was later made into a film of the same name (in English Quiet Chaos) starring Nanni Moretti. Other books include Ring City (2001), Brucia Troia (2007), XY (2010) and Terre Rare (2014). His latest novel Il colibrì was published in October of 2019. Besides writing novels he has written for a number of newspapers and magazines and also written several critical essays including a study on the implementation of the death penalty in different countries. Together with Domenico Procacci he founded the publishing house Fandango Libri and a web radio Radiogas.