Giovanni Verga
Giovanni Carmelo Verga was an Italian realist writer, best known for his depictions of life in his native Sicily, and especially for the short story Cavalleria Rusticana and the novel I Malavoglia .
The first son of Giovanni Battista Catalano Verga and Caterina Di Mauro, Verga was born into a prosperous family of Catania in Sicily. He began writing in his teens, producing the largely unpublished historical novel Amore e Patria then, although nominally studying law at the University of Catania, he used money his father had given him to publish his I Carbonari della Montagna in 1861 and 1862. This was followed by Sulle lagune in 1863.
Source: Wikipedia