caption birth_place awards nationality pseudonyms birth_date spouse genre image article_title education name occupation
ron fairchild terpening in tucson , 2006 photo by lance bellingham , washington , united states national endowment for the humanities -lrb- 1983 -rrb- american gerrit lambertzen , sarah rapalje-bergen 3 may 1946 vicki terpening suspense , thrillers , young-adult fiction ronterpening-2006 . jpg ron terpening
 university of oregon , university of california , berkeley ron terpening author , professor of italian
ron terpening

ron terpening -lrb- born ronnie harold terpening on may 3 , 1946 -rrb- is an american writer , professor of italian , and editor .
though he started his writing career as an author of young-adult fiction , where the father/son conflict is a major theme , he is best known for his later novels of suspense , most of which are set , at least in part , in italy , reflecting his academic background as a scholar of italian culture .
his thriller `` league of shadows '' , for example , deals with the fascist era in italy and its aftermath in the contemporary world .
a later international thriller , `` nine days in october '' , came out of the author 's course research on the forces of order and disorder in contemporary italy and follows a band of criminals and ex-terrorists as they attempt to carry out an assassination plot .
all of his novels , including `` storm track '' and `` tropic of fear '' , the latter set in paraguay , are noted for their strong sense of place .
in most of his novels , his protagonist is usually a common man placed in a situation where powerful forces are arrayed against him .
while his novels take place in the modern era , terpening 's academic research has focused on italian authors of the renaissance , most notably the venetian humanist lodovico dolce , although he has also published a study of the infernal boatman charon and numerous articles on other writers of the 15th and 16th centuries .
his editing work has ranged from text books , mostly anthologies of italian literature , to broad studies of italian culture .
