Born in Rome from a family active in theatre, she graduated in Italian literature and screenwriting. She made her literary debut with a short story published on the revue Nuovi Argomenti in 1992. In 1996 she published Il bacio della medusa (Baldini&Castoldi), shortlisted at premio Strega, to which followed La camera di Baltus (Baldini&Castoldi, 1998) and Lei così amata (Rizzoli, 2000), on the life of the Swiss reporter Annemarie Schwarzenbach. In 2003 she won the premio Strega for the novel Vita (Picador), then translated into many languages. Among her more recent publications: La lunga attesa dell’angelo (Rizzoli, 2008), Limbo (Einaudi, 2012) and L’architettrice (Einaudi, 2019).