Biography
Shiono was born in Tokyo, on 7 July 1937. In high school she read Homer's Iliad and was fascinated by it. She graduated from Gakushuin University with a degree in philosophy. During her school years, she was deeply involved with student activism, but eventually became disillusioned with the movement She wanted to attend Waseda University but was denied by her father.
From 1963 to 1968 she lived in Italy, studying the language and history of the country on her own. During this time she also travelled extensively in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. Upon returning to Japan in 1968, she began to write and published her first book, Runesansu no Onna-tachi (Women of the Renaissance), in the literary magazine Chūo Kōron.
In 1970, she published her second work Chēzare Borujia Aruiwa Yūganaru Reikoku (Cesare Borgia the Elegant Tyrant). In the same year, she married an Italian doctor of Sicilian descent and moved to Florence. They had a son, but later divorced. She moved to Rome in 1993 and currently lives there.
Read more about this topic: Nanami Shiono
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