The Sacco Gang

by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli (Translator)

Overview

The award-winning author’s “vivid historical novel based on the true story of the five Sacco brothers” who fought fascism and the mafia in 1920s Sicily (Publishers Weekly).

Sicily, 1920s. As socialists who run successful farms and businesses, the Sacco brothers are a prime target of the local Mafia’s extortion racket. When their father receives an anonymous letter demanding protection money, he goes to the police. But what can they do with such a complaint? No one in the village has ever dared denounce the Mafia before.
From that moment on, the Sacco brothers must defend themselves as they face an escalating war against the Mafia, corrupt police, and fascist leaders who declare the Saccos a gang of bandits. Facing violent attacks and false accusations, they become fugitives who can trust no one in their battle for freedom.

“A twisted morality tale worthy of the wild west.”—The Guardian

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781609454234
Publisher:	Europa Editions, Incorporated
Publication date:	07/17/2018
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Andrea Camilleri is widely considered to be one of the greatest living Italian writers. His Montalbano crime series, each installment of which is a bestseller in Italy, is published in America by Penguin Random House. Several books in the series have been New York Times bestsellers. His literary honors include the Nino Martoglio International Book award. Born in Sicily, Camilleri currently lives in Rome.

Stephen Sartarelli is a contemporary poet and prize-winning translator. He has written three books of poetry and translated over forty works of fiction and poetry, focusing on French and Italian.

Editorial Reviews

05/21/2018
Camilleri, best known for his popular Inspector Montalbano mysteries, offers a vivid historical novel based on the true story of the five Sacco brothers who fought the violence of the Mafia, the treachery of the fascists, and the corruption of the police and courts in 1920s Sicily. The Saccos are socialists whose successful farms and businesses attract extortion threats from the Mafia, resulting in escalating violence when the Saccos refuse to pay. Robbery, arson, ambush, murder, and false criminal charges plague the Saccos—until they decide to counterattack. Several Mafia bosses are shot and the corrupt police blame the Saccos. The townsfolk side with the Saccos, but that positive momentum evaporates when the fascists declare the Saccos a bandit gang. The brothers become fugitives from the police, Mafia, and fascists, and cannot trust anyone. Betrayal is a constant companion, and tragedy and injustice are the only possible outcomes. This is a riveting story of how organized crime, political corruption, and judicial duplicity can oppress freedom. (July)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for The Sacco Gang

“If history is the story of the winners and the powerful, it’s not only the fault of historians; the fact is that the traces of the past with which they work—’documents’—are left by those arranging for their own posterity . . . Camilleri rebels against this fiction, creating another, more refined and luminous one.”
— La Repubblica

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

“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

Praise for The Revolution of the Moon

“A tragicomic parable of justice…Camilleri laces this true tale of exemplary leadership with humor.”

— Kirkus Reviews

“Bestselling and award-winning Italian author Camilleri (the Inspector Montalbano series) offers a marvelous historical drama based on a true but little-known episode of 17th-century Sicilian history.”
— Publishers Weekly

“AndreaCamilleri’s The Revolution of the Moon beats the odds, rendering a fascinating story built on a true historical moment and managing to sell me a political novel in a time when I’m the least likely to read anything political.”

— Words Without Borders

"[Camilleri] presents us here with a historical novel encompassing his skills as a researcher combined with the masterful ability to wring not only meaning from a story but fun, too. His sly, wry approach to matters of morality, politics, crime and sexual dynamics seasons a stew of facts and fiction to perfection."

—Eric Boss, Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association

“Eleonora, a woman forgotten by history, will come alive to the reader. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to discover a remarkable, forgotten woman.”

— The Historical Novels Review

“Camilleri is back! This time with a novel that is entertaining, moving, and written in his hallmark and hypnotizing mix of Sicilian dialect and standard Italian... The Revolution of the Moon is, above all, an homage to women. Doña Eleonora is both courageous and fiercely determined. More than a book, this is another jewel from Andrea Camilleri placed in a historical setting that feels tragically similar to our own.”

— Wake Up News (Italy)

“Suspense, surprises, and courtly intrigues abound in this story of power that also doubles as a tribute to women and their sensibilities.”

— Panorama (Italy)

From the Publisher

07/01/2018
Camilleri, author of the internationally beloved, Sicily-set "Inspector Montalbano" series, here tells the story of the infamous Sacco Gang in this stand-alone historical. The Sacco family—primarily composed of brothers Vincenzo, Salvatore, Giovanni, Girolamo, and Alphonzo—has an unearned reputation for troublemaking, extortion, and murder. Their father built a successful farm on luck and hard work and as the sons expand his businesses, they run afoul of the local mafia. The family's socialist views also make them targets of an increasingly powerful Fascist Party in 1920s Italy. Taking on both the police and the mafia, they attempt to stand up for their own rights and the rights of their neighbors. Offering a straightforward and unromantic account of escalating violence in the Sicilian countryside, the author depicts the unrelenting terror of shoot-outs, ambushes, and assaults. VERDICT Based on historical events, Camilleri's latest is not light reading for the armchair traveler, but instead a realistic representation of a region dominated by organized crime and a corrupt justice system in the first half of the 20th century.—Catherine Lantz, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago Lib.

Library Journal

2018-05-01
An Italian family goes from poverty to prosperity and then to infamy in this brisk account of the persecution the Mafia brought to 1920s Italy, based on a true story.Luigi Sacco is a day laborer in rural Raffadali who, by dint of his brains, hard work, and wish to make a family with the woman he loves, becomes a prosperous landowner with a large family. The Saccos are socialists, so all their advancements are done with an eye toward bettering the lots of those around them. When his son, Giovanni, sees a way to make a profit by replacing the horse-drawn cart that provides the only transportation to the provincial capital with a bus, he goes into partnership with the driver of the cart so as not to put him out of a job. It's not the Saccos' politics that the local Mafia can't abide so much as the money the family is making. Luigi's refusal to accede to extortion results in a decadeslong war, with family members dying, sons having to live as outlaws, and the dissipation of the Saccos' fortune. The local law is of no help, as the Mafia controls the police, judges, and the outcomes of most trials. The story reads like a researched version of a folk legend handed down over generations. The people are not fully developed characters as much as figures standing in for their fates—which is not a criticism but exactly what is to be expected when a story is told in this way. That doesn't keep the reader from longing for a bit more dramatization or, at least, the audiobook, where the right narrator could give this appalling and tragic story the fabulist element it needs.The injustice here has an immediacy; the tale itself feels part of legend.

Kirkus Reviews