This is a collection of two novellas - one the last piece Sciascia published; the other a rather earlier piece, translating Candide into post was Sicily. A Sicilian to his boots, Sciascia writes about the labyrinthine secular and ecclesiastical politics of his island, with the unspoken but even present mafia of organised crime infiltrating its structures with its far reaching tentacles. One story tells of an apparently simple crime that turns out not to be such; the other the journey of an innocent through a corrupt world. In both we see a dominant corrupt and sclerotic system meeting a single honourable man. The writing is clear, passionate but ironic, humorous but sad and offers a compelling portrait of life in Sicily through deceptively simple writing. The first Sciascia I've read - and not the last

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