Sicily Books
Discover the best Sicily books with our curated reading list, featuring literary masterpieces like The Leopard by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa. Explore compelling fiction that captures Sicily’s rich history, culture, and landscapes. Uncover your next unforgettable read about this iconic island today.
Book
The Leopard
by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa
SOON TO BE A NETFLIX SERIES • Set in the 1860s, The Leopard tells the spellbinding story of a decadent, dying Sicilian aristocracy threatened by the approaching forces of democracy and revolution. "A majestic, melancholy, and beautiful novel."—The New Yorker The dramatic sweep and richness of observation, the seamless intertwining of public and private worlds, and the grasp of human frailty imbue The Leopard with its particular melancholy beauty and power, and place it among the greatest historical novels of our time. Although Giuseppe di Lampedusa had long had the book in mind, he began writing it only in his late fifties; he died at age sixty, soon after the manuscript was rejected as unpublishable. In his introduction, Gioacchino Lanza Tomasi, Lampedusa's nephew, gives us a detailed history of the initial publication and the various editions that followed. And he includes passages Lampedusa wrote for the book that were omitted by the original Italian editors. Here, finally, is the definitive edition of this brilliant and timeless novel. (Translated from the Italian by Archibald Colquhoun.)
