Amidon was born in
Chicago. He grew up on the
East Coast of the
United States of America, including a spell in
Columbia, Maryland, which served as the inspiration for his fourth novel
The New City. Amidon attended
Wake Forest University as a Guy T. Carswell Scholar, majoring in philosophy. He moved to
London,
UK, in 1987, where he was given his first job as a critic by
Auberon Waugh, who invited him to review a novel for
The Literary Review. In 1999 he returned to the US. His literary criticism and essays have appeared in many publications in North America and the UK and he has also worked as a film critic for the
Financial Times and the
Sunday Times. In November 2013, Amidon was on the jury of the 31st
Torino Film Festival. Amidon has written two non-fiction books:
The Sublime Engine with his brother Tom, a cardiologist, and
Something Like the Gods, which is dedicated to his son, Alexander, a first-team, all-ACC wide receiver for the
Boston College football team. In 2023, Wendy Smith of
The Washington Post wrote, "Over the past three decades, Stephen Amidon has produced a series of novels as compulsively readable as they are hard-edged about such uncomfortable facts of American life as race, class and money." Stephen Amidon sold his first work of fiction in 1989, when the short story "Echolocation" was chosen by
Ian Hamilton for inclusion in the
Bloomsbury anthology
Soho Square II. He was awarded an
Arts Council of Great Britain bursary for the short story in 1990. He is the author of a collection of short stories and seven novels, the most recent of which,
Locust Lane, was released in 2023. His fiction has been published in seventeen countries and has appeared on many best-of-the-year lists. Amidon's novel
Human Capital was chosen by
Jonathan Yardley of
The Washington Post as one of the five best works of fiction of 2004. An Italian film adaptation of the novel
Human Capital (
Il capitale umano), directed by
Paolo Virzì won best film at the 2014
David di Donatello,
Nastro d'Argento, and
Globi D'Oro Awards. The film premiered in the U.S. at the 2014
Tribeca Film Festival, and was Italy's entry for best foreign language film at the 2015 Academy Awards. In February 2015, Teatro Stabile di Torino premiered 6BIANCA, a serial drama, written by Stephen Amidon and directed by Serena Sinigaglia.
The Leisure Seeker, which Amidon adapted as a screenplay with Virzì,
Francesca Archibugi, and
Francesco Piccolo, premiered in completion at the 2017
Venice Film Festival. The film stars
Helen Mirren and
Donald Sutherland, and the screenplay was nominated for
Italian Golden Globe, and
David di Donatello awards. An American version of
Human Capital, directed by
Marc Meyers, adapted by
Oren Moverman, and starring
Liev Schreiber,
Alex Wolff,
Marisa Tomei, and
Maya Hawke, premiered at the 2019
Toronto International Film Festival. January 2020, filming began in Italy on an adaptation of Amidon's novel
Security, directed by
Peter Chelsom, and starring
Marco D'Amore,
Valeria Bilello, and
Fabrizio Bentivoglio.
Security was released in Italy in May 2021, and elsewhere in June by Netflix, on which it became a worldwide hit. ==Works==