Sicily: Recommended Books and Movies

By Rick Steves

To learn more about Sicily past and present, check out some of these books and films. (And see our similar lists for elsewhere in Europe.)

Books: Nonfiction

  • From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily and Finding Home (Tembi Locke, 2019). Story of how the author bonded with her late husband's Sicilian family while learning to make her mother-in-law's recipes.
  • The Middle Sea: A History of the Mediterranean (John Julius Norwich, 2006). Lively historical account of the peoples and lands connected by the Mediterranean.
  • Midnight in Sicily (Peter Robb, 1996). Detailed retelling of the height of the Mafia's power in Sicily, including ties between organized crime and the Italian government.
  • On Persephone's Island (Mary Taylor Simeti, 1986). Observations of an American, married to a Sicilian, of the island's culture and customs, life on their countryside farm, and her Sicilian family.
  • The Peoples of Sicily, A Multicultural Legacy (Jacquline Alio and Louis Mendola, 2014). Examination of Sicily's unique experience as a crossroads of cultures and faiths for more than a thousand years.
  • Sicily, A Short History (John Julius Norwich, 2015). Readable account, covering 3,000 years of history, that clearly sorts out the major events and characters.

Books: Fiction

  • Day of the Owl (Leonard Sciascia, 1961). Mystery focusing on the chilling effect the Mafia had on small-town life in the 1960s, when the Mafia's existence as a large-scale crime network was uncertain.
  • The Godfather (Mario Puzo, 1969). Classic tale of crime, betrayal, and family honor. among the Corleone family. Following the success of The Godfather, Puzo continued the saga of this Mafia family in several novels, including The Sicilian (see below).
  • The Leopard (Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, 1958). Classic story, set in Sicily during the Risorgimento, that captures the political upheavals of Italy in the 1860s.
  • The Shape of Water (Andrea Camilleri, 1994). First novel in a longstanding series of mysteries; this one finds Inspector Salvo Montalbano investigating an embarrassing death and cover-up.
  • The Sicilian (Mario Puzo, 1984). Continuation of the Godfather saga, in which bandit Salvatore Giuliano becomes a folk hero.
  • Six Characters in Search of an Author (Luigi Pirandello, 1921). Intellectual comedy in which six "unused" characters of an author's imagination demand lines to tell their stories.

Films

  • Cinema Paradiso (1988). An acclaimed movie director from Rome recalls his childhood in Sicily, where his friendship with projectionist Alfredo introduces him to the passion of his life (Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film).
  • Divorzio all'Italiana (1961). Marcello Mastroianni plays a married Sicilian baron who falls in love with his young cousin — but divorce is illegal at the time (Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay).
  • The Godfather: Part II (1974). The best of the famous trilogy focuses on the tormented early life of Sicilian-born Vito Corleone, establishment of the family business in New York, and the passing of control to his son Michael (6 Oscars, including Best Picture).
  • Il Gattopardo ("The Leopard," 1963). Set during the tumultuous unification of Italy, this Italian Gone with the Wind follows the decline of the Sicilian nobility in the 19th century (based on the 1956 novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa).
  • Il Postino (1994). On a beautiful island, a mailman is introduced to literature by a famous poet (filmed in part in the Aeolian Islands off Sicily's north coast).
  • Inspector Montalbano (1999). This series (based on the books by Andrea Camilleri) follows a clever police chief inspector in provincial Sicily.
  • La Terra Trema (1948). This drama from the Giovanni Verga novel I Malavoglia is set in a coastal village north of Catania, where entire families of fishermen are at the mercy of greedy wholesalers. Director Luchino Visconti hired local people as actors.
  • Malèna (2000). Monica Bellucci plays Malèna, a sensual wife living by herself in a closed-minded Sicilian town while her husband is reported dead in World War II.
  • Salvatore Giuliano (1962). Set in 1950s western Sicily, this drama centers around Giuliano, a Sicilian Robin Hood who fought against the Italian government for Sicily's independence — and eventually lost.