Review of SICILY: A Short History from the Ancient Greeks to Cosa Nostra
Yes, a short and sweet love letter to an extraordinary place ...
To find the right history of a place before you travel there is always a challenge. The likes of FODOR and LONELY PLANET do their best and can help in a pinch while staring at a cathedral or reading a tiny description of a famous painting. The big legit histories are too often as long and dense as they are legit. To be legit in the historian’s world means covering all your bases. It is rare to find a literate and deeply informative book somewhere in-between that can be read BEFORE you leave. Norwich, a legit historian by the way, has written just such a book on his beloved Sicily – and that is the key. He clearly “loves” this ancient, complex mess of an island and it gives his book a critical pass of sorts. Norwich has written a multi-volume history of the Byzantine Empire that is not your pre-Istanbul travel prep book. This book is. Sicily jumps off the pages. It is funny and nicely organized with good photos and just enough maps (!). It served its purpose perfectly. After a couple weeks rattling around the island, tour guides and all, Norwich’s accessible narrative proved the perfect scaffolding for such an enterprise. By the way, you do NOT have to be going to Sicily to enjoy it.
SICILY (A Short History)
Julius Norwich
2015 348 pages