Writer Baricco has leukemia

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 24 - Italian writer, director and book show presenter Alessandro Baricco said at the weekend that he is suffering from a rare form of leukemia that struck him five months ago and will undergo a bone marrow transplant from his sister.
    The 58-year-old author of masterly novels like Novecento, Oceano mare and Seta, as well as founder of the Holden writing school in Turin, made the announcement with a post from his hospital bed that showed a copy of Dickens' Pickwick Papers at his bedside, after which he named a highly popular TV show about books.
    Baricco debuted as a novelist with Castelli di rabbia (translated as Lands of Glass) in 1991.
    In 1993 he co-founded the creative writing school in Turin, naming it Scuola Holden after J. D. Salinger's Holden Caulfield, protagonist of cult novel Catcher in the Rye.
    The Scuola Holden hosts a variety of courses on narrative techniques including screenwriting, journalism, novels and short stories.
    In the following years, his fame grew throughout Europe, with his works topping the Italian and French best-seller lists.
    Wider recognition followed the adaptation of his theatrical monologue Novecento into the movie The Legend of 1900, directed by Giuseppe Tornatore.
    He has also worked with the French band Air, releasing "City Reading", a mix of the band's music with Baricco's reading of his novel City.
    Baricco directed the critically acclaimed film Lezione 21 on Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. (ANSA).