Midnight in Sicily

"Cola Pesce was always playing in the sea and one day his mother said in exasperation she hoped he'd turn into a fish..."

Peter Robb, who lived in southern Italy for 15 years, tells the story of Sicily, its opulent coasts, its stark interior, its extraordinary art and rich food, and its layers of culture from east and west. Sicily is also the home of the mafia, and Midnight in Sicily shows the grip of organised crime on daily life in Italy's south and the mafia's ties to government in Rome, following the career of Giulio Andreotti - seven times prime minister of Italy who at the time was appealing a conviction for conspiracy to murder, but has since been acquitted of the crime. The book moves from art to crime to food with tremendous narrative verve and a mass of surprising detail. Since its first publication in Australia in 1996, Midnight in Sicily has been published in many countries and languages.

This is a reissue with the same new cover and introduction featured when released in trade paperback in 2002.

About the Author

Peter Robb is an Australian author. He was born in Toorak, Melbourne in 1946 and spent his formative years in both Australia and New Zealand. Between 1978 and 1992 he spent most of his time in Naples and southern Italy, interspersed with sojourns in Brazil. At the end of 1992 he returned to Sydney. His first book, Midnight in Sicily, was published in Australia in October 1996. It won the Victorian Premier's Literary Prize for non-fiction in 1997. He has taught at the University of Melbourne, the University of Oulu in Finland and the Istituto Universitario Orientale in Naples.