Thanks to Liz for alerting me to this in last Friday's Independent. I'm not a fan of detective fiction in general but the "Montalbano" books by the Sicilian author Andrea Camilleri are a bit different: they are well worth reading for their humour, gentle irony and for snippets of information about Sicilian food, locations and attitudes. They are not particularly easy reading, even for an Italian graduate like me, as they contain a lot of dialect and southern-only usages [and I don't know how successfully these have been rendered in the English translations now available], but I am getting to grips with them. The TV films of the novels are hugely popular here and Vitàga in both is actually nearby Scicli and Montelusa is Ragusa. [You can even take "Montalbano" tours now.] So I enjoy watching the films just to pick out the places I know! I would definitely say, if you are not familiar with these books, give them a go. By the way, Steve of Writing and Having Fun, if you don't already know them, I should think they would be to your taste!
6 comments:
I wonder if blogger will gobble this comment up as well...I think he's devoured my comments to your two previous posts, Welsh...never mind...this will all sort itself out soon, one would hope!
Welshcakes, than you so much for pointing out Mr. Camilleri's works. I've looked at the connections you listed and it does indeed sound like something I would like to read. I see that his books are available at Amazon. I will see what I can get. Again, thank you.
Hi, Steve. My pleasure. Hope you enjoy whichever ones you can obtain. I'd love to know what you think of them.
Camilleri is terrific... over the summer I found him at our Mystery Book Shop. The book I read was "The Shape of Water". I really enjoyed it. ~M
Hi! This is Nanni from Scicli, I am 27, I have just had a look at your blog, which I found very interesting. I am going to be here in Sicily for a little while, trying to set up my own business. I am looking for english native speakers who live near the zone, since I would like to practice a bit of english. I have been several months in England, London, Oxford, and I got a Ma in International Relations at the University of Kent. I don't know it's very wird to contact people by internet, but, here, it's very difficult to meet english people on the street. This is my email in case you would like to drop me a line: nanni.nigito@gmail.com. Just a last thing: how much is Camilleri popular in England?
Hi, Nanni. Nice to meet you and your English is excellent. Glad you like my blog. I don't think many British people know of Camilleri yet as his books have not long been translated into English, but I'm sure he will become known there, especially with the main newspapers running articles on him. I will email you.
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