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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