In 1962 Roberto Quaglia came into this world not being able to return to the other. So he decided to settle down here. For a start he grew up, not neglecting to gain the correct stature and then rid himself of his surplus quantity of hair. Once he had taken possession of the space occupied by himself, he started to face the time which was streaming past him.
As a side product of his permanence in space-time we find comics, strange photos, theater, written paper, surreal videos and of course some organic waste. But it was only when too many people started to read him that he suddenly noticed he was in reality a writer who finally convinced himself he actually was a writer. From then onwards he has above all written consistently, neglecting – in his most obsessive moments to live, but managing to survive all the same.
Today, Roberto Quaglia is undoubtedly one of the most interesting of the Italian writers. Certainly he's the most original, irreverent and iconoclastic. He has written surreal science fiction novels, stories and essays, topped by a 500+ pages controversial book about the Myth of September 11.
Roberto's latest work is an amazing book written together with British author Ian Watson, The Beloved of my Beloved.
It's a collection of stories which was described by Eric Brown in The Guardian as "tales of perverted love and obsession, detailing bizarre sexual practices and pathological states of mind [...] told with lip-smacking gusto and spot-on satire."
One of the stories of this book won the prestigious BSFA Award in 2010.
Critics often state that Quaglia's texts are powerful in their disrupting, desecrating vein and their cynical modern black humour, both of which give a distinctive mark to a good part of his writings, with a frequent touch of surrealism. His writings have in time become a cult in more and more literary circles around the globe and eventually even deep inside the Milky Way.
This is how Ian Watson has described Roberto Quaglia:
Roberto Quaglia from Genoa usually lives in Bucharest speaking Romanian, although he can now also imitate enough Russian to make Russians believe that he’s speaking Russian. As a result, he recently posed for the Russian Penthouse. Admiration of Robert Sheckley caused Roberto to invite Sheckley to Italy, then drive him around Europe for several years in his big white Mercedes labelled www.surreal.info until the letters fell off the rear window. Ex-barman and one-time surrealist City Councillor for Genoa, Roberto’s hilarious double novel Paradoxine is published in English and prefaced by Sheckley. A former prize-winning photographer, Roberto continues to take thousands of photos. His uncle lives in Munich, so he has to talk to him in German; but learning Romanian destroyed Roberto's French, so it's a good thing he has no uncle in Paris.
From 2002 he's vice-chairman of ESFS (European Science Fiction Society)
All this is just an example. |
