Midnight in Sicily
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Vintage Publishing
Published:2nd Jul '15
Should be back in stock very soon

Peter Robb's journey into Sicily is a wondrously diverse account of its art, culture, crime and corruption written in prose that feels as infected and beautiful as the island itself.
Peter Robb's journey into the dark heart of Sicily uses history, painting, literature and food to shed light on southern Italy's legacy of political corruption and violent crime.
Behind Sicily's beauty lies a darker story of power and silence.
Beginning with the trial of seven-times Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti for alleged Mafia involvement, Peter Robb enters a Sicily where politics, organised crime, culture and everyday life cannot easily be separated.
Moving through Palermo and across southern Italy, Midnight in Sicily combines investigation with history, art, literature and food. Robb follows the long entanglement of Cosa Nostra with political and economic power, from post-war Sicily to the assassinations of anti-Mafia magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino and the trials and revelations that followed.
Markets, meals, painting and writing are essential to Robb’s understanding of the island. Leonardo Sciascia, Renato Guttuso and the physical life of Palermo sit alongside judges, politicians and Mafia bosses.
The result is a dark, sensual portrait of Sicily and a searching account of how corruption survives by becoming part of the systems meant to contain it
One of the greatest charms of Robb's book is his evident delight in southern Italy, particularly its food, which is recorded with such intensity of memory that one can almost taste it... As an introduction to post-war Italy, to the country as well as its politics, it can have few equals -- Caroline Moorehead * Times Literary Supplement *
Robb writes brilliantly about the cycle of violence in southern Italy. This unclassifiable book melds politics, the mafia, travel, autobiography and serious cooking -- Andrew Taylor * Independent *
I love this book. It left me in a sweet and sour mood of exultation, grief, despair and hope which lasted for many days -- Peter Goldsworthy * Australian Review of Books *
One of the finest books on the Italian south. [Peter Robb's] analysis is as riveting in its commentary on modern Sicilian life as The Leopard was to an earlier generation * The Economist *
Peter Robb manages to celebrate the literature, art, manners and food of an entire region. His book is a masterpiece of elegant, sceptical enquiry and a pleasure to read -- Ian Thomson * Evening Standard *
In a short review it is possible only to hint at the richness, vitality and the intellectual and narrative verve of the book...a distinctive and powerful work -- David Fairservice * Quadrant *
I cannot recommend a better book to anyone interested in Italy in general, the crossroad of cultures which is the south of Italy, in the phenomenon of the mafia and its international intrigues, in literature and in food... Midnight in Sicily is a triumph * Adelaide Review *
Essential reading * The Book Magazine *
A wonderful book and an outstanding debut -- Richard Dyer * Boston Globe *
No recent book on Sicily...gives so masterly a picture of Sicilian life in all its contradictory richness -- Joseph Farrell * Scotsman *
ISBN: 9780099595809
Dimensions: 197mm x 129mm x 24mm
Weight: 244g
352 pages