The Four Corners Of Palermo

(Paperback)

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Description

Palermo in the 1980s. 14 hours from Rome and the world of civilised government and order. The Sicilian city is a place of great beauty but torn apart by the second great Mafia gang wars. A perfect place for a young crime reporter to get his start. As he travels across Palermo, the crime reporter looks back on his own youth and lyrically retells four tragic stories that marked him. A Mafioso who refused to become a professional killer; a model whom he loved and couldn't save; a father who succumbed to hatred and jealousy; and a daughter in search of her lost honour.

Reviews

"Lyrical, philosophical writing."Booklist(starred review)

"Amusing and tragic...[Di Piazza's]first foray into fiction is compelling and raw."Publishers Weekly

"Di Piazza gives us a terrific portrayal of the brutality of the Mafia."NPR.org

"Like its namesake the Quattro Canti,The Four Corners of Palermoshows us the many faces of a city plagued by drugs, death and the Mafia. Facing violence on a daily basis and finding escape through friends and lovers, a twenty-three year-old crime reporter tries to make sense of the dark underbelly of a city of rare beauty. As Di Piazza observes, a canto is a corner in Palermo, but 'it is also a song.'"Ben Pastor, author ofLumenandA Dark Song of Blood

"Thrilling, terrifying, heartbreaking. A chronicle of youth, and love, in the shadow of the Palermo Mafia. Di Piazza bravely brings to life a world that most of us close our eyes to, and in the act, draws a portrait of the city as it truly is. A breathtaking book." Andrew Sean Greer, award-winning author ofThe Impossible Lives of Greta WellsandThe Story of a Marriage

"I read to be transported, and Giuseppe di Piazza'sThe Four Corners of Palermodid just that, to 1980s Sicily, in the middle of a gruesome Mafia war. What I didn't expect was the sensuality of the writing, the lush descriptions of landscape, food, the young journalist's loves and lusts, the ocean salt and the stark blue sky, juxtaposed against a dark carnival of violence and revenge." Lisa Brackmann, bestselling author ofHour of the Rat,Rock Paper Tiger, andGetaway

"Di Piazza recounts the people and the lives destroyed by violence with felicitous accuracy in his selection of details and psychological motivations, but he also gives us a vivid portrait of Palermo, lovely at times, like a postcard, with that climate, that light, that blue sea, and at other times a monstrous, alien city."Corriere della Sera

"A book written in two registers: on the one hand, pure noir, dramatically bound up with the story of Palermo, the city of a Mafia bloodbath in the 1980s, and on the other hand, a generational tale, young people chasing after their utopian dreams to the notes of Pink Floyd, King Crimson, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer."Giornale di Sicilia

"Four nested stories, like four movements of a symphony, where the allegro, the adagio, the grave, and the scherzo continually intermingle."Il Messaggero

Written with...humor and sensitivity. LEspresso

Pure adrenaline. Il Tempo

In a bloody Palermo, the sexual revolution is threatened by mafia violence. Il Sole 24 ore

A generational portrait in four movements full of real people and strong sentiments. Panorama

DiPiazza counts a war looked with disinterest by the rest of Italy. Nuova Sardegna

In these stories marked by blood and love, the double soul of Sicily emerges with grace and passion. Corriere Fiorentino

DiPiazza is to the novel as a velvet glove is to a Jaguar steering wheel. Gioia

Author Bio

Guiseppe Di Piazza began his career in journalism in 1979 with the newspaper L'Ora. He has worked for such Italian publications as Sette, where he was Director, and for Max as Editor-in-Chief. He teaches a Masters course in journalism at the IULM University of Milan and is currently an editorial director at Correire della Sera. THE FOUR CORNERS OF PALERMO is his first novel and his English debut. Antony Shugaar is an author and translator. His most recent translations include AS IT IS ON EARTH by Davide Enia, A Pimp's Notes by Giorgio Faletti, Swimming to Elba by Silvia Avallone, Romanzo Criminale by Giancarlo De Cataldo, and Story of My People by Edoardo Nesi (Other Press). The author lives in Milan, Italy.