Your experience of coming closer to Sicily will be greatly enhanced if you have the support of the right books, to help explain the many mysteries of this fascinating island. Read them before you leave, if you like, or when you get back home, or take them with you and read them during your trip! In fact, many of these titles are also available as e-books or Kindle.
For further information, please contact us at closertosicily@hotmail.com
General
To start with, you need a good guidebook. We strongly recommend BLUE GUIDE SICILY (Somerset Books), always the best, which has now reached its ninth edition. Written by Ellen Grady, a resident, the guide gives you in-depth information on history, archaeological sites, cities, towns, and villages, with tips on where to stay, where to eat, and what to buy. Everything you need to see and do while in Sicily.
Please see: https://www.blueguides.com/sicily/
Birds and Butterflies
Birds of Britain and Europe (Dorling Kindersley Ltd), by Rob Hume, is an excellent guide, if a little too heavy to fit your pocket. Illustrated with photographs, not necessarily a good idea. A CD of birdsong is included.
Collins Bird Guide to Britain and Europe (Collins), by Lars Svensson, another excellent choice. Illustrated with very helpful paintings.
Collins Butterfly Guide to Britain and Europe (Collins), by Tom Tolman, illustrated by Richard Lewington, will prove to be indispensable in identifying Sicily’s numerous butterflies, which include many rarities and some endemic forms.
Botany
Wild Flowers of the Mediterranean (A & C Black), by Marjorie Blamey and Christopher Grey-Wilson, is the best possible guide to help you identify the plants and flowers you will find on coming Closer to Sicily. The flora of the island is incredibly rich, and Marjorie’s beautiful illustrations do justice to such a vast subject.
Cities
Sicily’s cities, with their age-old heritage, have many fascinating secrets. Try these works by Jeremy Dummett (I.B.Tauris publications):
Syracuse: City of Legends and
Palermo: City of Kings.
Food
An excellent companion is the pocket-size BLUE GUIDE ITALY FOOD COMPANION (Somerset Books), a useful tool when navigating menus, not only in Sicily, but anywhere in Italy.
Sicilia in Cucina – Sicilian Cookery (Sime Books), illustrated with spectacular photos, gives you 80 traditional Sicilian recipes, both in Italian and English. Irresistible.
Genealogy
Interested in finding out the background of your Sicilian ancestry?
Sicilian Genealogy and Heraldry (Trinacria Editions LLC), by Louis Mendola, gives in-depth information on the subject.
History
We suggest three works by the well-known and easy-to-read historian, John Julius Norwich:
Sicily: An Island at the Crossroads of History (Random House).
The Middle Sea: A History of the Mediterranean (Vintage). Not only Sicily, this book helps to explain how changing circumstances in the Mediterranean have affected the countries on its shores through the centuries.
The Normans in Sicily and The Kingdom in the Sun (Penguin), now published together in one volume, follow the exploits in the late Middle Ages of the Normans in Italy and then Sicily, where they founded a glittering, short-lived dynasty, which changed the fortunes of the island for ever.
Literature
Sicily is proud of its really great writers. Here is a selection, to help you get the flavour of the island through its literature:
The Leopard (Pantheon) by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. This famous novel was made into an equally famous film, starring Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale and Alain Delon. Essential reading, it is the story of an aristocratic family in the dramatic, changing times of the Unification of Italy.
Cavalleria Rusticana and Other Stories (Penguin Classics) by Giovanni Verga. Born in the mountain village of Vizzini, Verga writes heart-wrenching, true-to-life stories about the simple Sicilians he knew so well – fishermen, farmers and labourers.
Six Characters in Search of an Author and Other Plays (Penguin Classics) are some of the theatrical works written by Luigi Pirandello, a true master of the genre. Kaleidoscopic facets of human personality, ever-changing, ever mysterious. Nothing is quite what it seems. Pirandello also wrote hundreds of excellent short stories, and six novels.
The Day of the Owl (Granta) by Leonardo Sciascia. This writer was of a journalistic turn of mind. He often wrote about the Mafia. Social injustice in Sicily always made him angry. If you can find it,
Death of an Inquisitor (Carcanet Press), by the same author, will make your blood run cold. Based on a true episode during the Inquisition in Palermo, you won’t be able to put the book down.
Death in Sicily – The Shape of Water, The Terra-cotta Dog and The Snack Thief (Heinemann Educational Publishers) is a collection of the first three novels in the famous Montalbano series by Andrea Camilleri, currently Italy’s best-selling and most translated author. Set in the imaginary town of Vigata (Porto Empedocle) on the south coast, the stories describe the often unorthodox investigations into local crimes carried out by Chief Inspector Montalbano, always successful thanks to his intuition and tenacity, in spite of the constant difficulties created by his superiors. No traditional hero, Montalbano has plenty of human failings with which we can identify. Camilleri writes in his own idiosyncratic mixture of Sicilian and Italian, but thanks to the sensitive translations into English by Stephen Sartarelli, the humour and the earthiness of Camilleri emerge very well. Try some of his hilarious historical novels too, quite unlike anything you have read before:
The Brewer of Preston (Picador),
The Revolution of the Moon (Europa), and
Hunting Season (Penguin).
The Almond Picker (Picador) by Simonetta Agnello Hornby, who was born in Palermo and lives in London, is an interesting story that gives new insight on life in Sicily in the fairly recent past.
The Mask of Apollo (Virago Modern Classic), was written by Mary Renault, an English writer with a particularly deep understanding of the ancient Greek world. This novel is a must-read for those who want to understand more about Greek theatre, how the plays were presented, and their important place in Greek culture. Some of the story unfolds in Syracuse, in the days of Dionysius the Great and Plato.
Mythology
The history of Sicily and its people is deeply rooted in mythology. There are many books on the subject, this one is particularly useful:
Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes (Grand Central Publishing), by Edith Hamilton.
Women
Sicilian women, so strong, enterprising and resourceful, have contributed enormously to the historical heritage of their island. To find out more, try this interesting work by Jacqueline Alio:
Women of Sicily: Saints, Queens and Rebels (Trinacria Editions LLC).
Luxury Sicily Holidays 