Shiono was born in Tokyo, on 7 July 1937. In high school she read Homer's Iliad and was fascinated by it. She graduated from Gakushuin University with a degree in philosophy. During her school years, she was deeply involved with student activism, but eventually became disillusioned with the movement She wanted to attend Waseda University but was denied by her father. From 1963 to 1968 she lived in Italy, studying the language and history of the country on her own. During this time she also travelled extensively in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. Upon returning to Japan in 1968, she began to write and published her first book, Runesansu no Onna-tachi, in the literary magazine Chūo Kōron. In 1970, she published her second work Chēzare Borujia Aruiwa Yūganaru Reikoku. In the same year, she married an Italian doctor of Sicilian descent and moved to Florence. They had a son, but later divorced. She moved to Rome in 1993 and currently lives there.
Works
Her early work from the 1970s contain many historical novels set in Renaissance Italy, such as those listed above and Kami no Dairinin. Later her interests shifted to the history of Venice. In 1980, she published Umi no Miyako no Monogatari, the work that made Shiono a nationally known figure. In 1992 Shiono started a monumental work on ancient Rome, Roma-jin no Monogatari. Completed in 2006, it is a 15-volume series that traces the history of the city and the Roman Empire. She has also written many non-fiction works, mainly essays on historic, political and/or cultural topics.
Reputation and awards
Although her first works were well received in Japan, it was not until the publication of Umi no Miyako no Monogatari that she became a best-selling author. Umi no Miyako no Monogatari became a literary phenomenon in the 1980s, eliciting reviews that compared Venice to Japan and sought hints about the future of Japan in her book. Her books were first published in Korea in 1995, and Roma-jin no Monogatari quickly became a bestseller there. Shiono was awarded the Mainichi Publishing Culture Award from the Mainichi daily newspaper for Runesansu no Onna-tachi. In 1982, Umi no Miyako no Monogatari won the Suntory Literary Prize. She won the Kikuchi Kan Prize the following year. For Roma-jin no Monogatari, she was awarded the Shincho Literary Prize. She received the Shiba Ryotaro Prize in 1999, and in 2002 the Italian government conferred upon her the Grande Ufficiale Order of Merit for introducing Italian history and culture to Japan. In Japan, opinions about Shiono's work are divided. Her works have been praised for their historical sweep, but have also been called oversimplified depictions of moments in history that were in fact multi-faceted and complicated. Professional historians tend to criticize her works for their lack of references and objectivity. Her interpretations of ancient Greek history have been challenged, and some critics object to what they see as right-leaning political tendencies.
