Publishers Weekly
05/17/2021
Journalist Mackay debuts with an astute and revealing portrait of Sicily as a vibrant, historically “autonomous” island with a singular culture fashioned by its proximity to Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. He delves into the establishment of the first Greek settlements around 750 BCE; the golden age of the Greek city-state of Syracuse in the third century BCE, while the rest of the island was engulfed in the First Punic War with Rome; and the ninth-century Islamic conquest that gave rise to Sicily’s UNESCO-recognized Arab-Norman architecture. Skillfully segueing from one period to the next, Mackay packs the narrative with insights into how historical events impacted Sicilian culture. At the height of the Black Plague in the 14th century, for instance, “the bright gold Byzantine mosaics of Sicily’s churches and chapels began to be replaced by darker, stranger pieces” that featured “dog people, humans with multiple heads, unicorns and other more ambiguous monsters.” Mackay also chronicles the history of the Sicilian Mafia, documenting its 19th-century origins, suppression by Mussolini in the 1920s, and post-WWII resurgence, though he stresses the short history of Cosa Nostra on an island where Cicero walked. The author’s keen eye for telling details and lucid prose make this an accessible introduction to a complex and fascinating culture. (July)
From the Publisher
A fascinating and imaginative work that should prompt us to reconsider some of the nationalist binaries that continue to structure our world.”
—Daniel Trilling, author of Lights in the Distance
“In this marvelous book, Jamie Mackay brilliantly reinvents Sicily for us as a palimpseste of meanings echoing through its tumultuous history—as a metaphor for the entire world, as the limits of the Western world, as a place of encounter between worlds. His beloved Sicilians engage in a conversation across epochs, as if their unending resistance against attacks on their freedoms or against un-examined imports, from religious dogma, to capitalist logics, to nationalist monocultural narratives or the idea of the modern state, had prepared the ground for their most inspiring exceptionalist stance to date—a stubborn refusal to imitate the rest of Europe and turn those seeking refuge on their shores into ‘others’. I can think of no better demonstration than the story found in these pages that the soul of Europe lies in its outer periphery. ”
—Kalypso Nicolaidis, author Exodus, Reckoning, Sacrifice: Three Meanings of Brexit
“A startling new voice analyzing the history of Sicily from its ancient origins to the present day with forthright clarity and profound sympathy. No excuses for the support of Mussolini or toleration of Cosa Nostra, but convincing explanations, enlivened by Sicilian novels, films, paintings and buildings. A fresh, exciting and eminently readable book.”
—Judith Herrin, author Ravenna
“[Mackay’s] keen eye for telling details and lucid prose make this an accessible introduction to a complex and fascinating culture.”
—Publishers Weekly
“The scope of Mackay’s knowledge and presentation is astounding … glorious and intelligent.”
—Sandra Callard, On Magazine
“An enjoyable canter across a history, and a place, which are entrancing and disturbing by turns.”
—Economist
“Lush and vibrant.”
—Nina Burleigh, Air Mail
“An impressive achievement condensing such a vast array of history, politics and culture, into such a slim and readable book, and it’s a tes-tament to Mackay’s unpretentious writing style that it never feels overwhelming or didactic.”
—Alex Sakalis, openDemocracy
“[A] lucid, sweeping yet detailed history … [Mackay] retells the history of intimacy, intermingling and exchange to bring out the promise and the hope of that past.”
—Marina Warner, Times Literary Supplement
“A brisk account of [Sicily’s] almost three-thousand-year history … [it is exciting] to realize how many fragments of one’s cultural baggage originated in Sicily.”
—Tim Parks, New York Review of Books
“A wonderful, fleet-footed history … profoundly original … it would be hard to conceive of another history of Sicily that does what this book does so well and so concisely.”
—Oscar Rickett, i newspaper
“Fascinating … The Invention of Sicily is the perfect companion to the culture and history of Sicily.”
—Helen Farrell, Florentine
“Excellent … Mackay gives us a refreshingly new interpretation of Sicily’s intriguing and all too frequently tragic history. What really comes through is the author’s subtle understanding and genuine appreciation of the Sicilians themselves … brilliantly entertaining.”
—Philippa Joseph, History Today
“The Invention of Sicily offers a recent corrective to much of the exoticization of Sicily in English-language studies and accounts.”
—Andreas Petrossiants, e-flux
“A rich, critical history.”
—Tribune
