Mein Sizilien

How can one be Sicilian? The old question has an old answer: Only with difficulties. Leonardo Sciascia, himself a Sicilian, examines these difficulties. Whether it is true that Sicilians are more cunning than cautious and at the same time as fearful as they are daring. Whether the Sicilian Don Giovanni has women in mind at all. Whether Sicilians ever allowed themselves to be governed and whether that is even possible. In the miniatures translated here for the first time, Sciascia provides knowledgeable insights. He shows us the unparalleled beauty of "his" island: rugged coasts, scattered villages on Mount Etna, the haughty Palermo, the places of Tomasi di Lampedusa. And he shares the small stories within the larger stories - like the fate of that city which Mussolini founded, but which remained a phantom.