Reading in the Dark Trivia Quiz

Answer: The River at the Center of the World

Simon Winchester was born in London and graduated in Geology. He was working in a mine in Uganda when he decided to became a journalist and writer; he got a job with a newspaper and in 1975 published his first book. In 1996 he made a trip on the Yangtze River in China that formed the base of his book "The River at the Center of the World", starting his journey in Shangai and making his way upriver to the head waters. Winchester moved to the United States and in 2011 he became an American citizen.

Answer: The Alchemist

The novel "The Alchemist" was published in Portuguese in 1988 and as of 2016 has been translated into 81 languages and has been sold in more than 170 countries. Paulo Coelho wanted to be a writer since he was very young, though against the wishes of his parents.

He managed to impose his will, traveled around the world as a hippie, associated with magical realism and occultism, and finally began his career as a writer having 30 books published as of 2017.

Answer: Novecento

Alessandro Baricco is a writer, director and artist with degrees in Piano and Philosophy. He began writing essays in music and only in 1991 began writing novels. His fame began in Europe, especially in Italy and France. His worldwide fame came in 1994 with the monologue "Novecento" made for theater but that was adapted to cinema with the name of "The Legend of 1900", directed by Giuseppe Tornatore and with music by Ennio Morricone.

Answer: Out of Africa

The Baroness Karen C. Von Blixen-Finecke (née Dinesen) was a Danish writer who used several pen names, Isak Dinesen being the best known. Her best known book is "Out of Africa", published in 1937, where she tells of her life as a farmer in British East Africa, now Kenya.

She gained fame with two of her several works that became famous throughout movies. The first movie was "Out of Africa" starring Merryl Streep and Robert Redford, released in 1985. In 1987, her short story "Babette's Feast" was made into a movie that won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

Answer: House of Spies

Daniel Silva is an American that began his professional life as a journalist and writer in 1984. When his novel "The Unlikely Spy" appeared as best seller in 1997 Daniel Silva left CNN to be a full time writer. By 2017 he had published 19 thrillers and espionage novels. "House of Spies" was published in 2017.

The main protagonist of his novels is Gabriel Allon and the focus of his novels is Israeli Intelligence.

Answer: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

John Boyne is an Irish writer who by 2016 wrote ten novels for adult readers and five novels for young readers, which were published in more than 50 languages. He began writing at age 19 and his first novel was published ten years later. "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas", his most known novel, was published in 2001 and adapted to the movie with great success in 2008.

Answer: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Roald Dahl is a famous British author that also made a career as a military aviator. He was born in Wales, son of Norwegian parents, and his name is a tribute to the polar explorer Roald Amundsen. His first writing was published in 1942. He is credited as being the creator of some of the most cherished twentieth-century novels for children, such as "Charles and the Chocolate Factory".

In 1971 and in 2005, adaptations of this book were made for movies. The 2005 version was directed by Tim Burton and Johnny Depp played the role of Willy Wonka.

Answer: Millennium Trilogy

Karl Stig-Erland "Stieg" Larsson was a Swedish journalist and writer. He got a typewriter as a birthday gift when he was 12 and his first works were of science fiction. Throughout his life he was very active in Swedish science fiction fandom and in politics.

He died suddenly in 2004 before the publication of the books "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", "The Girl who Played with Fire" and "The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest". Together they are called the "Millennium Trilogy".

Answer: Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy

Jostein Gaarder is a Norwegian author of several novels, short stories and children's books. He graduated in Scandinavian Languages and Theology and used to be a high school teacher until he started his writing career. His best known work is the novel "Sophie's World" that is subtitled "A Novel About the History of Philosophy".

Answer: Hear the Wind Sing

According to Haruki Murakami in 1978 he, then 29, was sitting in a baseball stadium when one of the athletes made a pitch and while the ball was flying through the air he had an "epiphany" and immediately was sure he could write a novel. He left the stadium, went to a store where he bought paper and pens, and at home started to write the novel "Hear the Wind Sing".

He received several literature prizes and his works were translated from Japanese to more than 50 languages and some have been adapted to cinema and to theater.