On Persephone's Island

American Mary Taylor Simeti arrived in Sicily after college to work as a volunteer on Danilo Dolci’s remarkable social welfare programme, but went on to marry and make her life here. On Persephone’s Island chronicles a year in the life of the island: its seasons and its sacred festivals, its almonds and oranges, its demanding family life, its casual assassinations and village feasts, its weather and its people.

Written by a fascinated outsider, she also has the intimacy of an insider: wife to a Sicilian, mother to two Sicilian teenagers, gardener, cook and carer for a suspicious mother-in-law.

About the Author

Mary Taylor Simeti was born and brought up in New York. In 1962, she went to Sicily to work as a volunteer in a community development centre run by the social reformer, Danilo Dolci. In 1964 she married Antonio Simeti, an agricultural economist who taught at the University of Palermo. Simeti and her husband now help their daughter to run the family farm, where they produce wine, olive oil and organic produce. She is the author of On Persephone's, Island: A Sicilian Journal (1986) a history of Sicilian food entitled Pomp and Sustenance and co-author of Bitter Almonds.

Her most recent book is Travels with a Medieval Queen. In addition to writing on food and travel for the Italian public, Simeti has written for various American and British publications including the New York Times.