10 Sicilian Summer Reads (Non-Fiction)
One of the things that always amaze friends and family when
they visit our Sicilian home is the amount of books about Sicily that we own,
not only that but how many books have actually been written about the island. It is my own little Sicilian library.
In my last blog post I shared our favourite Sicily inspired
Fiction books, now here are our ten favourite Non-Fiction books, written by
people who live or have lived in Sicily, people with Sicilian descendants or
those who just visited and fell in love with it.
Read and enjoy …..
My Love Affair with Sicily by Margie Miklas
As a second
generation Italian-American, Margie grew up knowing her Sicilian grandparents
and always felt closeness to the Sicilian cultural traditions which were
maintained by her family. Not until a few years ago did she travel to Sicily
for the first time. Here, she felt at home. She fell in love with the people
and the culture. She has returned to Sicily over and over again and recounts
her experiences in this true story, with passion and love for her ancestor’s
homeland. You will feel as if you are travelling alongside Margie as she
travels to different places in Sicily, explores the village of her grandparents
and connects with new friends whom she believes to be family.
Sicilian Shadows by Francesco Scannella
The compelling
memoir of a young boys struggle for survival in the heartland of the Mafia. It
is a story of tragic young love and centuries of hatreds told with humour and
brutal honesty. No one from that region with the author’s connections has ever
written about what it was really like. Names, times and places have been
changed to protect the innocent and in many cases, the guilty, but the events
and experiences really happened.
A House in Sicily by Daphne Phelps
Near Mount Etna on a
hillside rising precipitously above the terracotta roofed town below, sits a
perfectly proportioned house built in Golden Stone, one of the most beautiful
in Taormina. A House in Sicily is a homage to Casa Cuseni and was written by
the Englishwoman who loved and cared for it for over fifty years.
On Persephone’s Island, A Sicilian Journey by Mary Taylor
Simeti
A feast of information and a beautifully written account of a woman’s
love affair with Sicily that captures its spirit, whether Mary is guiding
around Sicily’s landscapes, festivals, anti-mafia protests, its history of
Greek, Arab, Norman and Spanish conquests, the Palermo convent that sells the
world’s best Cannoli or simply harvesting olives on her family’s farm.
Shot in Sicily by Michael Roberts
a coffee table book, Shot
in Sicily presents Michael Roberts complex view of Sicily, its people,
traditions, and landscape filtered through his photographic work for and beyond
the fashion world. Spanning 20 years, the book traces Roberts changing vision
of a sensual and ambiguous environment. Referencing Baron Wilhelm von Gloedens
photography and evoking the films of Visconti and Bolognini, Roberts sense of
Sicily moves beyond strict aesthetic categories. His camera captures the beauty
of youth, crumbling temples, traditional Easter parades, and the theatre of
daily life to recreate the allure of Sicily, even for those who have not yet
been there.
Cosa Nostra, A History of The Sicilian Mafia by John Dickie
a compelling true story of the Sicilian Mafia
Sicilian Summer by Brian Johnston
Travel writer Brian
Johnston accepted an invitation to attend the confirmation of a friend’s god
daughter in Sicily, naively expecting little more than the chance to immerse
himself in some southern Italian hospitality, while exploring the taste,
smells, flavours and rituals of Sicilian food. But Sicily has a way of getting
under your skin, and as well as being seduced by the island’s mysterious
charms, he finds himself unexpectedly swept up in family dramas, village
politics, eccentric personalities and age old feuds.
Casa Nostra, A Home in Sicily by Caroline Seller Manzo
Caroline met Marcello Manzo at a Halloween party in London in the seventies.
Although she spoke little Italian and he spoke no English the chemistry between
them was undeniable and it was not long until Caroline was invited to visit his
family in Sicily and soon she and Marcello were married. When the Manzo
brothers unite to save the family’s deteriorating estate, they sign on to the
project not entirely prepared for what they were getting into.
That Summer in Sicily – A Love Story by Marlena de Blasi
“At
villa Donnafugata, long ago is never very far away,” writes bestselling author
Marlena de Blasi of the magnificent if somewhat ruined castle in the mountains
of Sicily that she finds, accidentally, one summer while traveling with her
husband, Fernando. There de Blasi is befriended by Tosca, the patroness of the
villa, an elegant and beautiful woman-of-a-certain-age who recounts her
lifelong love story with the last prince of Sicily descended from the French
nobles of Anjou. Sicily is a land of contrasts: grandeur and poverty, beauty
and sufferance, illusion and candor. In a luminous and tantalizing voice, That Summer in Sicily re-creates Tosca’s life, from her impoverished childhood
to her fairy-tale adoption and initiation into the glittering life of the
prince’s palace, to the dawning and recognition of mutual love. But when Prince
Leo attempts to better the lives of his peasants, his defiance of the local
Mafia’s grim will to maintain the historical imbalance between the haves and
the have-nots costs him dearly. The present-day narrative finds Tosca sharing
her considerable inherited wealth with a harmonious society composed of many of
the women–now widowed–who once worked the prince’s land alongside their
husbands. How the Sicilian widows go about their tasks, care for one another,
and celebrate the rituals of a humble, well-lived life is the heart of this
book.
Bewitched in Sicily by Maria Nerelli
Maria Nerelli’s six
month diary charts her return to the land of her forefathers where she teaches
English at a primary school. Against the backdrop of the majestic mountains and
forests of northeast Sicily, she relates colourful anecdotes of the hazards of
everyday life from unexpected and often unnerving incidents on the daily school
run to the wonder and enchantment of the area. Maria revels in the realities of
her new life with its uncertain driving practices, unfathomable queuing system
and love of arguing and immerses herself in the history, culture and religion
of the region. You will be charmed by the school children with their pranks and
individual characters and if you do not believe in fairies by the end of this
book you just might …
If you enjoyed reading this why not read my last blog post,
10 Sicilian Summer Reads (Fiction)
Search my Blog archive for my favourite Sicilian Cookery Books
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