by Damiano Fedeli
The author of the bestseller that sold 15 million copies died suddenly. From the 1995 book, film directed and starring Robert Redford
British novelist Nicholas Evans, author of the novel The Horse Whisperer, died on August 9 (but the news was announced by United Agents on August 15) of a heart attack at the age of 72. His 1995 book (published in Italy by Rizzoli) was a bestseller, selling more than fifteen million copies worldwide and becoming the number one seller in twenty countries. The novel was made into a 1998 film starring Robert Redford and Scarlett Johansson.
The book (original title The Horse Whisperer) was his debut novel. It tells the story of a breeder who knows how to heal horses: he will also relieve the psychological trauma of a girl who suffered a serious accident during a horse ride. The inspiration for the book, Evans said, came to him in south-west England, where a blacksmith told him about Whisperers, people believed to have the power to heal horses by speaking to them. While writing the novel in 1994, Evans was diagnosed with a malignant skin tumor. At that time, a bidding war for book rights had broken out. The day after the surgery, I wandered around publishers trying to show a smooth and normal look. In reality, I was sweating cold, I was in pain, I felt like I was dying, the author said in a 2011 interview with the Guardian. But I thought if I told anyone they would think I was going to die soon.
Evans was born in Worcestershire, England in 1950, studied law at Oxford and began his career as a journalist, working first for Newcastle upon Tyne’s Evening Chronicle and then for broadcast media. His areas of specialization include politics and foreign policy (particularly the United States). It also covered the war in Lebanon from Beirut.
Evans was also a screenwriter and award-winning producer of art documentaries about characters such as David Hockney, Francis Bacon and Patricia Highsmith. As a novelist, Evans has published alongside his major hits: Along with the Wolves (1998), In the fire (2001, trans. it. 2002), When the Heavens Part (2005, trans. it. 2006) and Only if you have courage ( 2010). All titles published in Italy by Rizzoli.
In 2008, he and his wife, singer-songwriter Charlotte Gordon Cumming, suffered a very dangerous mishap: in Scotland, the two had eaten poisonous mushrooms. Both needed kidney transplants (he got it from one of the daughters, Lauren). Now, as United Agents breaks the news of the disappearance, she says she has lived a full and happy life at her home on the banks of the River Dart in Devon.
August 15, 2022 (change August 15, 2022 | 18:46)
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