Silvana La Spina was born in 1945 in the province of Padua to a Venetian mother and Sicilian father. This split cultural heritage characterizes La Spina's life as well as her literary oeuvre. Author of over a dozen books of fiction and non-fiction, La Spina's publications include L'ultimo treno da Catania (1992), Quando Marte è in Capricornio (1994), La creata Antonia (2001), La mafia spiegata ai miei figli (ed anche ai figli degli altri) (2006), La continentale (2014), L'uomo che veniva da Messina (2015), and, most recently Sorella detective (2020). Over the course of her literary career, La Spina has contributed articles on cultural and literary topics to numerous Italian newspapers; and, in 1993, La Spina received the prestigious Premio letterario Piero Chiara for her novel Scirocco. Invested in examining a logic of domination and propelled by a desire for creative resistance and change, La Spina's writings represent a unique and important voice in Italian literature of late 20th and early 21st centuries.