Gadda, Carlo Emilio (1893–1973) Born in Milan, Italy, he attended the Milan Polytechnic Institute, and became an engineer, working in Argentina, France, Germany and Italy between 1920 and 1935, after which he turned to writing. Much of his writing remains untranslated into English. His masterpiece is That Awful Mess on Via Merulana (1957, trans. 1965), about a philosopher-detective who investigates two murders in Rome.