Novel set on Sicily

19th July 2024

The Sicilian Inheritance by Jo Piazza, novel set on Sicily.

Sara has been a feted restaurateur over the years in Philadelphia, but her success has ground to a halt. She has to sell her beloved restaurant, La Macellaia, and she is seeking custody of her daughter. She has experienced life’s highs but now she is on her uppers, fighting for every cent, whilst maintaining her dignity. Her soon-to-be ex-husband, Jack, is all part of the sorry picture.

Her Aunt Rosie has died and it is her wish that Sara decamps to Sicily – to the fictional village of Caltabellessa (based on the author’s family village of Caltabellotto) – where Rosie was born. There she Sara to lay claim to a parcel of land that Rosie wants to pass on to her, listed in the name of Rosie’s mother, Serafina Forte and she is also to look into the family history. The hotel is booked, she has a pick up from the airport and Giusy will host her at her hotel in the village. The trip is all set.

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Sara feels she has no choice but is hopeful that a sale of the land will help ease her financial burdens and so she sets off from her home in Scranton, Philadelphia and heads to Sicily.

This is very much a story of family backstories and the echoes of footsteps past. This will be a very appealing novel for anyone heading to Sicily and wanting a good story and a little more about place and history – it is set in the present but also trawls back to the early 20th Century and Serafina’s story. She was a woman who got married at an early age, bore her children but as her husband had to leave her – as many menfolk did at the time in order to find work elsewhere, either in Palermo or in the United States. Poverty was rife. She had no choice but to rely on herself, and thus she found her vocation as a healer. She had some casual training in the art but given that formal medical infrastructure was non-existent, she found a good level of work; but prejudice grew, citing potential witchcraft. She was a woman in a man’s world, where the Camorra held sway, at a time when northern Italy plundered the rich produce of the land (God’s kitchen) to sell up North in the now unified Italy.

There is a lot of insight into the life of women and how the reach of the Mafia, both then and now, influences the lives of locals through acts of brutality and coercion. The feel of the island is beautifully brought to life and I was invested in the storyline right to the end, although I was not totally taken with the way the novel concluded. When you have penned a good story it must be a huge challenge to find the ending to match. As an overall read it is very good.and I enjoyed it.

I listened to this in part as an audiobook (great narration by Rachel Hirsch and Carlotta Brennan) and switched to hardback, depending on circumstance. This is a very good way to pace out  a novel and maintain continuity.

Tina for the TripFiction Team

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