Paolo Brera

Biography

Brera was born in Milan, the third son of journalist and writer Gianni Brera and teacher Rina Gramegna. In 1976, he married Clelia Bertello and later on Rosetta Griglié. With Griglié, he has two daughters, Jalée (born 1985) and Lavinia Lys (born 1987). Since 2008, Brera has been living with his third wife, Ritta Davletova, dividing their time in Nice, France and Milan.

Brera earned his degree in Political Economy from Milan's Bocconi University, where later on he was Assistant Professor of Economic History (1974–78). In 1977 he spent a few months at the Poznań University of Economics in Poland as a visiting scholar. From 1978–81 he worked at the Italian subsidiary of the French oil company Total, pursuing his research programme as a side occupation. Until 1985 he was a member of the Italian Socialist Party's (PSI) Economic Commission.

Brera researched the planned economies of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, publishing some fifty works in specialized journals. Brera was also a member of the Association Internationale des Économistes de Langue Française (International Association of French-Language Economists), and submitted papers on Eastern Europe at the NATO Headquarters in Bruxelles and in Rome.

He later became a journalist at Critica Sociale, Italia Oggi and Il Secolo XIX, and has contributed articles to Labour Weekly, Exormissi, Die Neue Gesellschaft, Corriere della Sera, L'Avanti, Tages Anzeiger, Corriere del Ticino, Panorama, Mondo economico, and others. In 1989–90, he was named vice-editor-in-chief of the Italian edition of Moskovskie Novosti. From 1998–2002 he edited and published Brera, a magazine devoted to the Brera district of Milan.

Since 2000, he has published science fiction novels and stories, as well as translations into Italian from English, French, Russian, Polish and Spanish works.