Biography

Irene Merlino was born in Friuli, Italy, in the mid Fall of 1979.

Fifth of six siblings, Irene started to find relief in her imagination.

It’s only during the middle school that she felt like pinning her ideas down, owing to several readings, which started off those years and have been keeping on, consequently enriching and deeper outlining her characters.

Detached from any sentimentalism and genuinely fascinated by other cultures, and although keen to give life to characters, who are ready to take on challenges, she began to create a world full of people, rules, behaviours and attitudes which, still deeply rooted in our reality, will make for a world on its own.

Clan’s Sisters, her debut novel (SDB Italian edition by Dreambook edizioni ©2015), is a first result of this kind of world.

Written at the age of eighteen, the novel reveals a turning point from adolescence to adulthood. A real jump ahead, that will allow her to express what she sees and to learn what exactly to focus on around her.

In fact, the people’s stories related with the Clan’s Sisters will travel along this latter world.

By some further short stories, Irene will tell about the most important figures, who revolve around the sisters, in the series Behind SDB: the stories of the other main characters.

But the entire journey will also bring her to picture the area she lives in surrounded by, her Friuli.

Fueled by some relatives’ and acquaintances’ stories, whom she’s come across during her life, she begins to tell about them by short stories.

Arduino’s Good Friday is the first of the series Friuli and its surroundings.