Critically
acclaimed author John Julius Norwich weaves the turbulent story of
Sicily into a spellbinding narrative that places the island at the
crossroads of world history.
“Sicily,” said Goethe, “is
the key to everything.” It is the largest island in the Mediterranean,
the stepping-stone between Europe and Africa, the link between the Latin
West and the Greek East. Sicily’s strategic location has tempted Roman
emperors, French princes, and Spanish kings. The subsequent struggles to
conquer and keep it have played crucial roles in the rise and fall of
the world’s most powerful dynasties.
As prized as it has been,
however, Sicily has often been little more than a footnote in books
about other empires. John Julius Norwich’s engrossing narrative is the
first to knit together all of the colorful strands of Sicilian history
into a single comprehensive study. Here is a vivid, erudite,
page-turning chronicle of an island and the remarkable kings, queens,
and tyrants who fought to rule it. From its beginnings as a Greek
city-state to its emergence as a multicultural trading hub during the
Crusades, from the rebellion against Italian unification to the rise of
the Mafia, the story of Sicily is rich with extraordinary moments and
dramatic characters. Writing with his customary deftness and humor,
Norwich outlines the surprising influence Sicily has had on world
history—the Romans’ fascination with Greek civilization dates back to
their sack of Sicily—and tells the story of one of the world’s most
kaleidoscopic cultures in a galvanizing, contemporary way.
This
volume has been a long time coming—Norwich and his wife began to explore
Sicily’s colorful history during their first visit to the island in the
early 1960s. The dean of popular historians leads his readers through
the millennia with the steady narrative hand of a master teacher or the
world’s most learned tour guide. Like the island itself, Sicily is a book brimming with bold flavors that begs to be revisited again and again.
Praise from the U.K. for Sicily
“Entertaining
on every page . . . There is something ancient and sorrowful in Sicily,
‘some dark, brooding quality,’ just as captivating as its spellbinding
history or its beautiful and varied landscapes, from beaches to lemon
groves, pine forests to volcanoes. . . . The most amiable and
freewheeling of guides, [John Julius] Norwich will always find time for
the amusing anecdote.”—The Sunday Times
“Norwich
is deeply in love with Sicily. [His] boundless affection has inspired a
determined effort to understand its painful past. The result is
impressionistic, as love often is.”—The Times
Praise for John Julius Norwich’s Absolute Monarchs
“A rollicking narrative . . . [Norwich] keeps things moving at nearly beach-read pace.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“A highly entertaining read . . . Norwich has a lightness
of touch and caustic sense of humour. . . . As a lively romp through two
millenniums of ecclesiastical history, [Absolute Monarchs is] well-nigh infallible.”—The Sunday Business Post
“Very
readable and rewarding . . . Norwich possesses an easy grace with
words, a gift for condensation and a wonderful instinct for the
memorable and defining detail.”
—The Plain Dealer
“Deeply researched, Norwich’s history offers a wonderful introduction to papal lives.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Excellent, often surprising . . . an outstanding historical survey.”—Booklist
This was an amazing book. I loved every page. Bravo!!!
