Born and raised in the province of Varese, Fontana studied Philosophy at the University of Milan,[1] and graduated with a final dissertation on Hilary Putnam's internal realism.
Otto fermate nella città che cambia (Terre di Mezzo), he became one of the finalists for the Premio Tondelli in 2009.
The book had seven reprints and has been translated into French (Seuil) German (Nagel&Kimche), Dutch (Wereldbibliotheek) and Spanish (Libros del Asteroide).
[3] Morte di un uomo felice (Sellerio 2014) brings the justice and law diptych – started with Per legge superiore – to a close.
[2] In 2019 he also published a comic book about the Deep Sea Slum in Nairobi, Lamiere (Feltrinelli), in collaboration with Danilo Deninotti e Lucio Ruvidotti.