Which are the best books set in Sicily and Sardinia? If you are looking for novels that capture the culture, history and atmosphere of these two Italian islands, the list below offers a carefully curated selection. It brings together award-winning classics and modern works of fiction that explore Sicily and Sardinia through their landscapes, social tensions and identities.
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Best Books set in Sicily
From Norman Palermo to twentieth-century rural towns, these novels explore Sicily’s layered history, social tensions and enduring sense of place.
The Ruby in Her Navel by Barry Unsworth (2006)
Set in twelfth-century Palermo at the court of King Roger II, this historical novel captures Sicily at the height of its Norman splendour, where Christians, Muslims and Jews live in fragile coexistence. Through a tale of love, loyalty and intrigue, Barry Unsworth paints a vivid portrait of a dazzling yet divided medieval Sicily.
- Setting: Palermo, Sicily
- Publication: 2006
- Original title: The Ruby in Her Navel
- 320 pages
Read the full book page: The Ruby in Her Navel
The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri (1994)
When a politician is found dead in a Sicilian seaside town, Inspector Montalbano must untangle a web of corruption, desire and deception. Witty, sharp and steeped in local colour, this first novel in Camilleri’s celebrated detective series offers a lively introduction to contemporary Sicily.
- Setting: Porto Empedocle (Vigàta), Sicily
- Publication: 1994
- Original title: La forma dell’acqua
- 249 pages
Read the full book page: The Shape of Water
The Silent Duchess by Dacia Maraini (1990)
In eighteenth-century Sicily, the deaf-mute teenager Marianna Ucrìa is married off to her uncle. Despite her unenviable situation, she gradually succeeds in carving out her own intellectual and emotional independence. Set between Palermo and Bagheria, this award-winning historical novel reveals how a remarkable woman finds her own way in a patriarchal society.
- Setting: Palermo, Bagheria (Sicily)
- Publication: 1990
- Original title: La lunga vita di Marianna Ucrìa
- 261 pages
- Notable: winner of the Premio Campiello, shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize
Read the full book page: The Silent Duchess
Smile of the Unknown Mariner by Vincenzo Consolo
- Setting: Alcara Li Fusi (Sicily)
- Publication: 1976
- Original title: Il sorriso dell’ignoto marinaio
- 131 pages
To Forget Palermo by Edmonde Charles-Roux
- Setting: Palermo (Sicily); New York
- Publication: 1966
- Original title: Oublier Palerme
- 304 pages
- Notable: Winner of the Prix Goncourt in 1966.
The Day of the Owl by Leonardo Sciascia (1961)
In a small Sicilian town, a murder committed in broad daylight is met with a wall of silence, as every witness claims to have seen nothing. Leonardo Sciascia’s classic novel was the first work of fiction to expose the suffocating grip of the Mafia on post-war Sicilian society.
- Setting: Sicily.
- Publication: 1961
- Original title: Il giorno della civetta
- 136 pages
- Notable: winner of the Premio Crotone
Read the full book page: The Day of the Owl
The Leopard by Giuseppe di Lampedusa (1958)
Set in 1860s Sicily during the unification of Italy, this majestic historical novel follows Prince Fabrizio of Salina as the old aristocratic order begins to crumble and Sicily becomes part of a united Italy. Amid sun-drenched palaces, Lampedusa evokes a world poised between tradition and change, capturing the melancholy beauty of Sicily at a turning point in its history.
- Setting: Palermo and Santa Margherita di Belice (Donnafugata)
- Publication: 1958
- Original title: Il Gattopardo
- 336 pages
- Notable: winner of the Premio Strega
Read the full book page: The Leopard
There’s No Home by Alexander Baron
- Setting: Catania (Sicily)
- Publication: 1950
- 288 pages
Beautiful Antonio by Vitaliano Brancati (1949)
Set in 1930s Catania, this tragicomic novel follows Antonio Magnano, a man celebrated for his charm and virility. When his marriage reveals a private truth at odds with his public reputation, Brancati offers a sharp critique of Sicilian notions of masculinity under Fascism.
- Setting: Catania (Sicily)
- Publication: 1949
- Original title: Il bell’Antonio
- 304 pages
Read the full book page: Beautiful Antonio
Behind Closed Doors: Her Father’s House by Maria Messina (1944)
This collection of short stories portrays the lives of women in early twentieth-century Sicily, bound by family duty and social expectation while many men emigrate to America. Through clear-eyed prose, Maria Messina reveals the constraints of a patriarchal society and the quiet endurance of those who remained behind in Sicily.
- Setting: Inland Sicily (Mistretta)
- Publication: 1944
- Original title: Casa paterna
- 210 pages
Read the full book page: Behind Closed Doors: Her Father’s House
Conversations in Sicily by Elio Vittorini (1941)
After years in Milan, Silvestro returns to his native Sicily and encounters a series of figures whose voices reflect life under Fascism. Blending realism and allegory, Vittorini’s classic novel presents Sicily as both a physical landscape and a moral terrain, shaped by hardship, memory and muted resistance.
- Setting: Sicily
- Publication: 1941
- Original title: Nome e lagrime (Conversazione in Sicilia)
- 144 pages
Read the full book page: Conversations in Sicily
The Marquis of Roccaverdina by Luigi Capuana
- Setting: Mineo (Sicily)
- Publication: 1901
- Original title: Il marchese di Roccaverdina
- 242 pages
Master Don Gesualdo by Giovanni Verga
- Setting: Vizzini (Sicily)
- Publication: 1889
- Original title: Mastro-don Gesualdo
- 200 pages
The House by the Medlar Tree by Giovanni Verga
- Setting: Aci Trezza (Sicily)
- Publication: 1881
- Original title: I Malavoglia
- 316 pages
Best Books set in Sardinia
From inland villages to coastal towns, these novels capture Sardinia’s distinct cultural identity and the tension between tradition and modernity.
Accabadora by Michela Murgia (2009)
Set in 1950s Sardinia, this novel follows Maria, a poor girl adopted by an elderly seamstress in a remote village. When she discovers her adoptive mother’s role in an ancient ritual practice that assists the dying, she is forced to confront difficult questions of love and morality.
- Setting: Sardinia
- Original title: Accabadora
- Publication: 2009
- 208 pages
- Notable: winner of the Premio Campiello, the Premio Supermondello and the Premio Dessì
Read the full book page: Accabadora
Bloodlines by Marcello Fois
- Setting: Sardinia
- Original title: Stirpe
- Publication: 2009
- 288 pages
From the Land of the Moon by Milena Agus
- Setting: Cagliari (Sardinia), Milan
- Publication: 2006
- Original title: Mal di Pietre
- 108 pages
Bakunin’s Son by Sergio Atzeni
- Setting: Sardinia
- Publication: 1991
- Original title: Il figlio di Bakunin
- 88 pages
Vendetta by Michael Dibdin
- Setting: Sardinia
- Publication: 1990
- 260 pages
Procedura by Salvatore Mannuzzu
- Setting: Sardinia
- Publication: 1988
- Original title: Procedura
- 169 pages
- Notable: winner of the Premio Viareggio
The Day of Judgment by Salvatore Satta (1977)
An elderly narrator recalls life in the Sardinian town of Nuoro from the late nineteenth century to the aftermath of the First World War. Through a series of interconnected episodes, Satta offers a reflective portrait of family life, social change and the slow arrival of modernity in inland Sardinia.
- Setting: Nuoro (Sardinia)
- Publication: 1977
- Original title: Il giorno del giudizio
- 300 pages
Read the full book page: The Day of Judgment
Padre Padrone (My Father, My Master) by Gavino Ledda
- Setting: Siligo (Sassari, Sardinia)
- Publication: 1975
- Original title: Padre padrone. L’educazione di un pastore
- 232 pages
- Notable: winner of the Premio Viareggio
The forests of Norbio by Giuseppe Dessì
- Setting: Norbio (Villacidro, Sardinia)
- Publication: 1972
- Original title: Paese d’ombre
- 306 pages
- Notable: winner of the Premio Strega
Reeds in the Wind by Grazia Deledda (1913)
In a country house in Galtellì, three unmarried sisters of an aristocratic family live under the shadow of the past. When a young relative arrives, long-suppressed tensions resurface. Nobel Prize winner Grazia Deledda traces the fragile balance between fate, guilt and social change in early twentieth-century Sardinia.
- Setting: Galtellì (Sardinia)
- Publication: 1913
- Original title: Canne al vento
- 208 pages
- Notable: Grazia Deledda won the 1926 Nobel Prize in Literature
Read the full book page: Reeds in the Wind
