Antonio Tabucchi was born in Pisa in 1943, and was a teacher of Portuguese Language and Literature at the University of Siena.
His first novel, Piazza d’Italia, was published in 1975, and was followed by other important works, including Il gioco del rovescio (1981); Donna di Porto Pim (1983); Notturno indiano (1984); Piccoli equivoci senza importanza (1985); Requiem (1992); Sostiene Pereira (1994); La testa perduta di Damasceno Monteiro (1997). In 1999 he published his investigative book, Gli zingari e il Rinascimento.
Tabucchi was a highly-knowledgeable scholar of Portuguese literature, and edited and translated the Italian version of the works of Fernando Pessoa and the poems of Carlos Drummond de Andrade.
His writing has earned Tabucchi numerous awards, including the Viareggio-Rèpaci Prize, the Campiello Prize, the Medicis Etranger Prize, the Jean Monet Prize and the European Prize for Literature.
Many of his works were turned into films: Alain Corneau directed Notturno indiano; Massimo Guglielmi directed Rebus, adapted from the story of the same title in Piccoli equivoci senza importanza, featuring Charlotte Rampling and Fabrizio Bentivoglio; Alain Tanner directed Requiem and Roberto Faenza Sostiene Pereira in which Marcello Mastroianni played one of his last film rôles.
The Italian and international theatre drew on his works and from his play I dialoghi mancati (1988) for numerous productions.
His last work was a novel, Si sta facendo sempre più tardi, published in March, 2001.