Blood Washes Blood

by Frank Viviano (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2002

  $3.25

  Lu sangu lava lu sangu, 'Blood Washes Blood'. Sicilian proverb, alluding to the torrent of unforgiving vengeance that flows from an unforgivable offence. More than a century ago, Frank Viviano's namesake was murdered at a lonely crossroads in Sicily. He had been a revolutionary and a thief, a Robin-Hood bandit who traveled by night in the robes of a friar. Sicilians called him 'the Monk'. Shortly before his death in 1993, Viviano's grandfather whispered the name of the murderer - and nothing more. The whisper sent him to the fishing village of Terrasini west of Palermo in search of the Monk and his killer; in pursuit of a mystery that left his namesake dead on a country lane, drove his family to America and set in motion an eighty-year conspiracy of silence. From his first day in Sicily, Viviano was confronted by ever more baffling clues and coincidences, an impenetrable code of discretion and a maze of bureaucratic dead-ends all linked with the island's tortured history and the continuing blood feuds of organized crime. Somewhere in the parallel Sicily that no stranger will ever know was locked the answer to the riddle of his namesake's killing. The revelation, when it came, was to change Viviano's entire understanding of his family's past and the violent contradictions of his own life. Blood Washes Blood is part detective story, part touching personal memoir where past and present meet in a spellbinding mix. Variety has described the book as 'an Italian Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil'.

• Used

  Paperback
  2001

  $3.25

• Used

  Hardcover
  2001

  $3.25

  Part detective story, part memoir, this book also provides a memorable account of a Mediterranean island under attack by a criminal society. More than a century ago, the author's namesake was murdered in Sicily. The dead relative was a revolutionary and a thief, nicknamed the Monk. His sudden death ultimately drove his family to America and set in motion an 800-year conspiracy of silence. Intrigued by a reference to the event and to the name of the murderer by his dying grandfather, Vivano returned to his homeland to delve into the obscure history of his family's dark and mysterious past when the Mafia was in its infancy. His personal odyssey to find the truth, through a maze of bureaucratic obstruction, baffling clues and coincidences, is a gripping one, a recovered history snatched from the still powerful teeth of organised crime. As an enquiry both into his family's bloody history and an attempt to exorcise old ghosts, Vivano's history is occasionally obscure but always intriguing.