Leonardo Sciascia: life and main works of the Sicilian writer author of the famous novels The Day of the Owl and A Simple Story.
Leonardo Sciascia
Leonardo Sciascia , an important Sicilian writer, journalist and essayist of the twentieth century, was born on January 8, 1921 in Racalmuto near Agrigento and died on November 20, 1989 in Palermo. Sciascia is portrayed as a narrator of immense and infinite civil responsibility and expressive apprehension that he elaborated in numerous literary works and novels, such as Le parrocchie di Regalpetra . In the work, a protest against underdevelopment and social injustices that distress and torment a small town in Sicily is described in an autobiographical way. The author, of Sicilian origin, is preparing to describe in his novels the abuses and crimes committed by the mafia .
Gli zii di Sicilia is a work written between 1957-58 and is a collection of short stories. Each story describes Sicilian life in different eras and in each of these the transformation of man and society emerges.
Leonardo Sciascia: The Day of the Owl
The Day of the Owl is a novel bySciascia, first published in1960, in which he describes the character of a Carabinieri captain who investigates with dedication a mafia murder without however managing to shatter the thick conspiracy ofsilencethat looms over the entire territory: an important theme addressed by a Sicilian writer and at the same time extremely difficult to analyze. The Day of the Owl is represented precisely by the author’s condemnation of the mafia and criminal organizations in general, something that no one had done before.
Leonardo Sciascia: A Simple Story
A Simple Story is a short but meaningful novel, published in 1989. Set in contemporary Sicily, the book addresses with an essential style and lucid irony the themes dear to Sciascia’s work: corruption, power, silence and the complexity of justice in a society deeply marked by the mafia and the dynamics of power.
It all begins with an anonymous phone call to the police that leads to an investigation in an isolated villa, where an apparent suicide is discovered. However, what seems clear quickly turns into an intricate puzzle, highlighting the contradictions of a system incapable of dealing with the truth.
Leonardo Sciascia: other works
Among the writer’s most important works, in addition to the novels The Day of the Owl and A Simple Story , we can mention To Each His Own and Todo Modo .
In the novel To Each His Own, the bullying and crimes committed by the mafia are outlined, constantly protected by an environment of silence. The context represents a literary work of a metaphorical and symbolic nature based on the character of a police inspector who analyses a sequence of indecipherable murders.
Todo modo , a detective novel published in 1974, is set in a hermitage, intended for retreat for spiritual exercises. The setting, disciplined and on the surface very calm, is disrupted by a sequence of cruel crimes, behind which one can see the imprint of a devastating worsening and collapse of the most important values of the human race.
Among Sciascia’s most recent publications we recall the Cronachette of 1985, a sequence of short and small stories that represent and describe events set in the period between the 17th century and his contemporary times.
For a portrait of the writer as a young man (1985) is a loving and tender memory of the writer Antonio Borgese, whose youth and early learning years are analysed and described.
Leonardo Sciascia is also the author of numerous critical works and essays , among which are: Pirandello and Sicily ; Pirandello and Pirandellism ; Nero su nero , important notes and considerations taken from the diary; and Cruciverba , a collection of essays and moral, political and literary reflections.
