The book
A “wild west” tale of two brothers who battle both the State and a Mafia empire in 1920s Italy, from famed Italian author Andrea Camilleri.
Raffadali, province of Agrigento, 1920s. The Sacco brothers are free men with strong ideas about socialism and the State. Their lives change radically one morning when their father, Luigi Sacco, receives an anonymous letter from the local Mafia demanding protection money. Luigi tells the police of the extortion letters, but the police don’t know what to do: no one in the village has ever dared denounce the Mafia before. From that moment on, the Sacco brothers must defend themselves: from the Mafia and the forces of order, from their collaborators, traitors, and from the village’s leaders, as they are assailed by murder attempts, false accusations, and false testimony.
The Sacco Gang is not only a gripping Italian “western” but an indictment of the Mafia’s influence and the devastation it wreaks in people’s lives.
Praise for Andrea Camilleri
“The novels of Andrea Camilleri breathe out the sense of place, the sense of humor, and the sense of despair that fills the air of Sicily.”
—Donna Leon, author of the Guido Brunetti series
“A magnificent series of novels.”
—The Sunday Times
“The idiosyncratic Montalbano is totally endearing.”
—The New York Times
“Camilleri is as crafty and charming a writer as his protagonist is an investigator.”
—The Washington Post Book World
The author
Andrea Camilleri
Andrea Camilleri is widely considered to be one of the greatest living Italian writers. His bestselling Montalbano crime series is published in the UK by Picador. Born in Sicily, Camilleri died in 2019, at the age of 93.