Author Biography | Interview | Books by this Author | Read-Alikes
Michael Gregorio is the pen name of Michael G. Jacob and Daniela De Gregorio. Michael and Daniela have been married for 36 years, and live in Spoleto, Italy, where Daniela teaches Philosophy, and Michael teaches English and the History of Photography. They were awarded the Umbria del Cuore prize in 2007.
Michael Gregorio's website
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As I read A Visible Darkness I was fascinated by the act of collecting
amber. Michael and Daniela were kind enough to answer my questions plus give a
bonus teaser about the next Hanno Stiffeniis novel already in the works!
There is, it seems, a rich history surrounding Baltic amber. How much did
you know about the amber trade before embarking on your novel? How did you
research this?
We were looking for an original setting for the third story in the
series, and the Baltic coast seemed the ideal place, given that amber has been
collected on the shore for many centuries. It was a dangerous job. You could be
swept off your feet, drowned or maimed. We were fascinated by the bravery and
the desperation of young girls working in the sea, searching for precious amber
deposits, sometimes stealing what they found, often being murdered for it. There
was plenty of scope for a novel based on the world of amber.
We knew very little when we started, but it's surprising what you can
discover. We read books from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, notably
"Succini Prussici" by Phillip Jacob Hartmann, and the ancient laws which
governed the gathering of amber in Prussia, and the punishments for ...
Boris Akunin is the pen name of Grigory Chkhartishvili, who was born in the Republic of Georgia in 1956. A philologist, critic, essayist, and translator of Japanese, Akunin published his first detective stories in 1998 and ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
A Visible Darkness
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Louis Bayard is the critically acclaimed bestselling author of nine historical novels, including Courting Mr. Lincoln and The Pale Blue Eye, which is being adapted into a Netflix film starring Christian Bale. Bayard's ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
A Visible Darkness
Try:
The Black Tower
by Louis Bayard
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