Alessandro Baricco (b. 1958) is an Italian writer, director and performer whose work has become famous throughout Europe. He has been a music critic for La Repubblica and La Stampa, and his novels have been bestsellers in Italy and France. He has won, among other things, the prestigious Prix Médicis étranger and the Premio Viareggio. He is the founder of the creative writing school Scuola Holden (named after Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye), and editor of the Save the Story series.