In Sicily

Few places on earth have escaped the singular eye of Norman Lewis, "one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century" (P.D. James). But always, in the course of his long career, he has come back to Sicily. From his first, wartime visit--to a land untouched since the Middle Ages--through to his frequent returns, he has watched the island and its people as they have changed over the years. In 1964 Lewis wrote The Honoured Society, one of the very best books about Sicily and the Mafia. In 1998 he returned yet again to write this book, the result of a 60-year-long fascination with all things Sicilian.

In Sicily reveals this fascination on every page. Throughout there is the Mafia, and Lewis's friendships with policemen, journalists and men of respect. But more, he writes of landscapes and language, of his memories of his first father-in-law (professional gambler, descendant of princes and member of the Unione Siciliana), of Sicily's changing sexual mores, of the effects of African immigration (not least in the field of prostitution), of Palermo and its ruined palaces--and of strange superstitions, of witches, bandits and murder.

In 1964, Norman Lewis wrote "The Honoured Society", one of the very best books about Sicily and the Mafia. In 1998, he returned to the island and in this book he looks back on his half-century-long fascination with all things Sicilian. It is his fascination with the Mafia that pervades the book, but he writes too of landscape and language, of Sicily's changing sexual mores, of the effects of African immigration (not least in the field of prostitution), of his memories of Danilo Dolci, of Palermo and its ruined palaces - and of strange superstitions, of witches and exorcism and murder.