Leonardo Sciascia: The Man and the Writer

Leonardo Sciascia remains best known outside Italy as novelist and writer of idiosyncratic detective stories which aim not so much to identify individual criminals as to dissect the society in which such crimes occur and to unveil the powerful forces which benefit by them. He was also produced non-fiction books in a genre of his own devising which can be known only as the inchiesta (enquiry), a probe to find the truth of some event in past or contemporary society. Underlying all his work is the moral quest for truth, a fact which which makes him particularly relevant and indeed essential in a ‘post-truth’ society. Sicilian by birth and culture, he used, as he said, ‘Sicily as a metaphor,’ to allow him to extend his gaze into the morals, or immorality, of the use and misuse of power on an international scale.

Joseph Farrell is Professor Emeritus in Italian of the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. His recent books include: Sicily: A Cultural History; Dario Fo and Franca Rame – Theatre, Politics, Life; Robert Louis Stevenson in Samoa; Honour and the Sword – The Culture of Duelling. He has translated many books from Italian (Sciascia, Consolo, Dario Fo, Valerio Varesi among others) as well as three film scripts by Giuseppe Tornatore. He was given the title Cavaliere della Repubblica Italiana for his services to the diffusion of Italian Culture.