LEONARDO SCAISCIA was born in Sicily in 1921 and died there in 1989. Like Joseph Roth, Sciascia worked with deceptively simple forms - books about crime, historical novels, political thrillers - and was a master of lucid and accessible prose. This polished surface conceals great depths of sophistication and an intense engagement with the moral and historical problems of modern Italy, especially of his native Sicily. His books are rooted in a particular culture; they speak to anyone who has ever wondered how people can endure unbearable injustice.

Writing of the highest calibre... Both works deal unflinchingly with the dark, unspoken currents of corruption...but do so with a black wit and a sophisticated command of nuance... A writer of exceptional and rightly acclaimed skill