Tonino Benacquista

Tonino Benacquista, born in France in 1961 of Italian immigrants, dropped out of film studies to finance his writing career. After being, in turn, a museum night-watchman, a train guard on the Paris-Rome line and a professional parasite on the Paris cocktail circuit, he is now a highly successful author of fiction, film scripts and even graphic novels.

Benacquista won a Cesar (French Oscar) in 2006 for the script of Jacques Audiard's 'The Beat That My Heart Skipped' with Romain Duris. The film is a creative remake of 'Fingers' (1978), the first film directed by James Toback and starring Harvey Keitel. A rare instance where the remake is a giant improvement on the original.

Benacquista was introduced to English-speaking readers by Bitter Lemon Press with 'Holy Smoke', a darkly comic crime novel set in Paris and southern Italy. This critically acclaimed title was soon followed by the bestseller 'Someone Else' and 'Framed', a satirical mystery novel set in the world of Parisian art galleries.