Lead Review and the author talks location
- Book: Secrets in Sicily
- Location: Sicily
- Author: Penny Feeny
In 1968 there was a substantial earthquake in Belice, Sicily. It took an inordinate amount of time to rehouse the survivors, many were given passports to leave the area and relocate. The novel is set in fictional Roccamare, but fifty years on the ruined houses of actual Santa Margherita can still be seen, next to the new town that has risen from the ashes. Below, the author expands on the story and background.
It is in the aftermath of this dreadful event that the author sets her novel Secrets in Sicily. Jess and Alex McKenzie are frequent visitors to Villa Ercole run by Gerald and Dolly. Blissful and idyllic holidays make for fond memories and their daughter Lily has vividly captured scenes from her childhood. There is a reason they return to this part of Sicily every Summer.
One Summer, when Lily is a little older, the family is approached by Carlotta Galetti, it seems an innocuous enough encounter but gradually it becomes apparent that she is making herself known to the family for good reason. Her story feeds into the family life which the McKenzies have built up and her presence is sufficiently strong to undermine the couple relationship as things unfold.
The essence of the story is about kinship and provenance and how “it’s normal human need to know where you’ve come from“. Who is Carlotta and what does she want from the McKenzie family? It is Lily who has to make the “..quixotic leap into the unknown..” Secrets abound in every nook and cranny in this neatly woven story.
The important strands of the narrative dovetail together well and the author is extremely adept at bringing the feel of Sicily (and of Rome, although this is only a small part of the story) to her readers. There are peaches and tomatoes and lemons that overwhelm the visual and olfactory senses. There are vistas of sea, Palermo makes a guest appearance in all its arid, almost hostile construction, and the countryside, as the characters criss-cross the island, is redolent with the feel of hot Summer.
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