An Interview with Tom Benjamin. Crime Fiction and Transnationality

Abstract

Born in London, Tom Benjamin worked as a journalist before becoming an internationally renowned writer of crime fiction. His debut novel, A Quiet Death in Italy (2019), is set in Bologna and features a detective of English origin – Daniel Leicester – working together with his Italian in-laws. The Hunting Season followed in 2020, while Requiem in La Rossa – the third volume of what is quickly becoming a saga – is due to appear at the end of 2021. Anna Baldini met the author in Bologna, where he currently lives with his Italian wife, on a sunny afternoon of mid July. The two of them investigate the crucial role played by transnational mobility for the author’s writing process, how it has been crucial to better understand and cope with cultural differences existing between his two realities.