I have compiled a list of books that were either written by Sicilian authors or were written by non-Sicilians about Sicily.  The list is by no means extensive, but this is a start of some books you might consider reading if you have an interest in Sicily.

  • The Late Mattia Pascal This novel was written in 1904 by Luigi Pirandello. Its Italian title is Il Fu Mattia Pascal.  Pirandello was born in Agrigento and is Sicily’s most famous play write. This novel focuses on Pirandello’s favorite themes: the theme of “mask” and people in search of an identity. His most famous play, Six Characters in Search of an Author, also deals with the same theme. There is also a Sicilian film, Kaos, the Greek word from which we have our English word chaos, is a series of vignettes based on some of Pirandello’s short stories. Kaos is available on Netflix.
  • I Malavoglia, by Verga Giovanni Verga was a Sicilian writer born in 1840 in Vizzini (that’s the same town where my friend Francesco was born) and died in Catania. He was best know for his depictions of life in his native Sicily. Verga is considered one of the greatest of all Italian novelists.  I noticed that he died weeks after my father was born. Verga was an Italian realist writer and his style is called verismo. The book looks at the life of an impoverished fisherman’s family and portrays what happens when economic and social structures break down. The English title is The House by the Medlar Tree and there is also an old black and white film based on the book called “The Earth Trembles”. The novel and the film are very bleak, but very moving and interesting.  He also wrote Little Novels Of Sicily.  I see his books in every Sicilian bookstore!
  • Sicilian Carousel, by Lawrence Durrell  I enjoyed reading this and I wish the Sicilian Carousel Tour Bus still existed. It was a tour company in the 70s that took tourists all around the island, stopping at ruins and other places of importance.  I like how Durrell talks about Greek mythology and brings the Greek gods and goddesses to life as he journeys this ancient place.

 

  • What Makes a Child Lucky, by Gioia Timpanelli  Love her writing!

 

  • Behind Closed Doors: Her Father’s House and Other Stories of Sicily, by Maria Messina. Maria Messina was a recluse. She suffered from MS. She was born in 1887 in Palermo, and wrote 18 books that portray women’s lives during her era of life.

 

  • The Day of the Owl, Leonardo Sciascia. Leonardo put the town of Racalmuto on the map and Racalmuto is the town next to my parents’ blink-the-eye-and-miss-it-village of Grotte in the province of Agrigento. Sciascia was the first writer to stand up to the mafia and lived to tell the tale. The Day of the Owl was also made into a movie. It is true crime fiction genre. The Italian title is Il Giorno della Civetta.

 

  • A House in Sicily, Daphne Phelps  This book reminds me a lot of Under the Tuscan Sun, a dream come true to refurbish an old home.

 

  • On Persephone’s Island: A Sicilian Journal, Mary Taylor Simeti

 

  • The Stone Boudoir: Travels Through the Hidden Villages of Sicily, Theresa Maggio  Teri Maggio’s writing will get you hooked to her easy style. She also wrote the next featured novel below.
  • Mattanza, Theresa Maggio  I liked this one, too. After I read this book, I looked at YouTube videos of the Mattanza and I read up on the tuna fisheries in Sicily that were thriving way of life for thousands of years.  It makes me sad that the tuna numbers have dwindled to dangerously low numbers.  However, here you have it, the fishing done on a day to day basis, the way it’s been done for millennia.

 

  • The Terracotta Dog, Andrea Camilleri Everyone loves Camilleri in Sicily. He is Sicily’s Agatha Christie, another great mystery writer. Camilleri has many many books to check out if you like mysteries. His mysteries were set to a very popular tv series here in Italy. And you must watch at least a few of the Inspector Montalbano television series. They are based on Camilleri’s books, subtitled and available at the library. I love the Montalbano series.

 

  • The Sicilian, Mario Puzo (author of The Godfather)  If you are Sicilian and reading this, you probably just cringed! Sicilians have fought hard against political and social corruption and they are not eager to talk about mafia or subjects of protection money and violence.  They shudder at the thought that people actually come to Sicily to do “Mafia Tours“, where certain sites of massacres are visited, and former homes and hideouts of mafiosi visited and where tourists visit the places where scenes of The Godfather were filmed.  I am surprised that such tours even exist, given how much they are abhorred by the locals!  The Sicilian is a book about the Sicilian bandit, the black market food smuggler, Salvatore Giuliano.  Giuliano was Sicily’s Robin Hood and I have actually been in humble homes where there is a huge poster of the very handsome Giuliano right smack on the wall of the living room.  I have even seen photos of Giuliano with his arm around his mother! He is a bandit who could very well be a movie star with his good looks and poise! He is local hero of sorts from the past. The photo below is Giuliano. See what I mean?