Born in Naples in 1943, he worked as a teacher in high schools —an experience which he told about in his columns for the newspaper Il Manifesto, then collected in is literary debut —the novel Ex Cattedra (1987). His experience in teaching is also found in Fuori registro (Feltrinelli, 1991) and Sottobanco (e/o, 1992). In 2001 he won the Premio Strega for the novel Via Gemito (Feltrinelli). Among his more recent translated works: First Execution (Europa Editions, 2007), Ties (Europa Editions, 2014) and Trick (Eurpoa Editions, 2019). His books have been adapted fo screen in La scuola by Daniele Luchetti (1995), Auguri professore by Riccardo Milani (1997), Denti by Gabriele Salvatores (2000), and Lacci by Luchetti (2020).