A 'genius' Helsinki mystery with a touch of The Killing.--Nick Lezard in The GuardianMarani is obsessed by language and how it defines us. Here's a gifted European linguist also gifted at describing who we are as Europeans.--Rosie Goldsmith in The Independent Diego Marani was born in Ferrara in 1959. He works as a senior linguist for the European Union in Brussels. Every week he writes a column for a Swiss newspaper about current affairs in Europanto, a language that he has invented. His collection of short stories in Europanto, Las Adventures des Inspector Cabillot has been published by Dedalus. In Italian he has published seven novels, including the highly acclaimed New Finnish Grammar and The Last of the Vostyachs.was educated at Oxford where she obtained a first class honors degree in French and Italian. She teaches and translates fiction, art and architecture. Her translation of Marani's New Finnish Grammar won the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize and was shortlisted for The Best Translated Book.