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Sicilian Uncles

Sicilian Uncles

by Leonardo Sciascia (Author), N.S.Thompson (Translator)

  • Used

    Paperback 2001

    $12.72

  • Used

    Paperback 1988

    $3.25
Synopsis

The expression 'Sicilian uncle' has the same sense in Italian as 'Dutch uncle' does in English, but with sinister overtones of betrayal and inconstancy. The four novellas in Sicilian Uncles (1958) political thrillers of a kind - are the first fruits of Sciascia's maturity. In these stories, illusions about ideology and history are lost in mirth, in suffering, and innocence is abandoned. Each novella has its historical moment: the Allied invasion of Sicily, the Spanish Civil War, the death of Stalin, the 'events' of 1948. These occasions and their consequences are registered in the lives of Sciascia's wonderfully drawn characters. Each has voice, wit, and a private history which open out onto the wider circumstances of his time, and hint towards the later work of Sciascia.

$12.72

Quantity

1 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 208
 Edition: New edition
 Publisher: Granta Books
Published: 12 Jun 2001
ISBN 10: 1862074380
ISBN 13: 9781862074385

Media Reviews
District Attorney Varga is shot dead and then two judges are murdered - Inspector Rogas works his way into the mind of his prime suspect in Equal Danger, a wide-ranging political thriller that brilliantly evokes Sicily by a great European writer. There are four novellas in Sicilian Uncles in which illusions about history and ideology are lost in mirth, in suffering and the abandonment of innocence. Each is set in a historical moment: the events of 1848, the Spanish Civil War, the Allied invasion of Sicily and the death of Stalin.
Author Bio
Leonardo Sciascia was born in Sicily in 1912 and died there in 1989. Like Joseph Roth, Sciascia worked with deceptively simple forms - books about crime, historical novels, political thrillers - and was a master of lucid and accessible prose. This polished surface conceals great depths of sophistication and an intense engagement with the moral and historical problems of modern Italy, especially of his native Sicily. His books are rooted in a particular culture; they speak to anyone who has ever wondered how people can endure unbearable injustice.