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Zeno’s (established 1983) is an online used and out-of-print bookstore specializing in the categories of: literature in translation, modern first editions, and hard-to-find books. We started as a mail order business. In 1992 we moved into a storefront, and then to a bigger location a couple of years later. Eventually we closed the physical store to go online as zenosbooks.com. We have been selling our own hand-picked eclectic selection of used, hard-to-find, and even rare books via the internet ever since.

 

 

 

zenosbooks.com

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Our Web Page is frequently updated with new listings

 

 

Here's a listing of Signet Classics if you like that kind of thing...

 

 

 

 

 

 We have also recently created a few online bibliographies for your edification and enjoyment. They are still works-in-progress.

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 Latin America

 

 

 

 

 

Caribbean

 

 

 

 

 

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January 2021 Poetry list

 

  

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Featured author:

 

Andrea Calogero Camilleri (6 September 1925 – 17 July 2019) was an Italian writer. Originally from Porto Empedocle, Sicily, Camilleri began university studies in the Faculty of Literature at the University of Palermo, but did not complete his degree. meanwhile publishing poems and short stories. From 1948 to 1950 he studied stage and film direction at the Silvio D'Amico Academy of Dramatic Arts (Accademia Nazionale d'Arte Drammatica) and began to take on work as a director and screenwriter, directing especially plays by Pirandello and Beckett. His parents knew, and were, reportedly, distant friends of, Pirandello, as he tells in his essay on Pirandello, Biography of the Changed Son. His most famous works, the Montalbano series, show many Pirandellian elements: for example, the wild olive tree that helps Montalbano think is on stage in his late work The Giants of the Mountain. With RAI, Camilleri worked on several TV productions, such as Le inchieste del commissario Maigret with Gino Cervi. In 1977 he returned to the Academy of Dramatic Arts, holding the chair of Film Direction and occupying it for 20 years. In 1978 Camilleri wrote his first novel Il Corso Delle Cose (The Way Things Go). This was followed by Un Filo di Fumo (A Thread of Smoke) in 1980. Neither of these works enjoyed any significant amount of popularity. In 1992, after a long pause of 12 years, Camilleri once more took up novel writing. A new book, La Stagione della Caccia (The Hunting Season) turned out to be a best-seller. In 1994 Camilleri published the first in a long series of novels: La forma dell'Acqua (The Shape of Water) featured the character of Inspector Montalbano, a fractious Sicilian detective in the police force of Vigàta, an imaginary Sicilian town. The series is written in Italian but with a substantial sprinkling of Sicilian phrases and grammar. The name Montalbano is a homage to the Spanish writer Manuel Vázquez Montalbán; the similarities between Montalban's Pepe Carvalho and Camilleri's fictional detective are noteworthy. Both writers make use of their protagonists' gastronomic preferences. This feature provides an interesting quirk which has become something of a fad among his readership even in mainland Italy. The TV adaptation of Montalbano's adventures, starring Luca Zingaretti, further increased Camilleri's popularity to such a point that in 2003 Camilleri's home town, Porto Empedocle – on which Vigàta is modelled – took the extraordinary step of changing its official name to that of Porto Empedocle Vigàta, no doubt with an eye to capitalising on the tourism possibilities thrown up by the author's work. On his website, Camilleri refers to the engaging and multi-faceted character of Montalbano as a serial killer of characters, meaning that he has developed a life of his own and demands great attention from his author, to the demise of other potential books and different personages. Camilleri added that he writes a Montalbano novel every so often just so that the character will be appeased and allow him to work on other stories. In 2012, Camilleri's The Potter's Field (translated by Stephen Sartarelli) was announced as the winner of the 2012 Crime Writers' Association International Dagger. The announcement was made on 5 July 2012 at the awards ceremony held at One Birdcage Walk in London. In his last years Camilleri lived in Rome where he worked as a TV and theatre director. About 10 million copies of his novels have been sold to date and are becoming increasingly popular in the UK (where BBC Four broadcast the Montalbano TV series from mid-2011), Australia and North America. In addition to the degree of popularity brought him by the novels, Andrea Camilleri became even more of a media icon thanks to the parodies aired on an RAI radio show, where popular comedian, TV host and impressionist Fiorello presents him as a raspy voiced, caustic character, madly in love with cigarettes and smoking, since in Italy, Camilleri was well known for being a heavy smoker of cigarettes. He considered himself a non-militant atheist. On 17 June 2019, Camilleri suffered a heart attack. He was admitted to hospital in a critical condition. He died on 17 July 2019. He has been buried in the Protestant Cemetery of Rome.

 

 

The inspector Montalbano novels:

 

 

The Shape Of Water: The First Inspector Montalbano Mystery

New York. 2002. May 2002. Viking Press. 0670030929. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 225 pages. hardcover. Cover: Andy Bridge.

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER -  Andrea Camilleri's novels starring Inspector Montalbano have become an

 

international sensation and have been translated from Italian into eight languages, ranging from Dutch to Japanese. THE SHAPE OF WATER is the first book in this sly, witty, and engaging series with its sardonic take on Sicilian life. Early one morning, Silvio Lupanello, a big shot in the village of Vigàta, is found dead in his car with his pants around his knees. The car happens to be parked in a rough part of town frequented by prostitutes and drug dealers, and as the news of his death spreads, the rumors begin. Enter Inspector Salvo Montalbano, Vigàta's most respected detective. With his characteristic mix of humor, cynicism, compassion, and love of good food, Montalbano goes into battle against the powerful and the corrupt who are determined to block his path to the real killer. This funny and fast-paced Sicilian page-turner will be a delicious discovery for mystery aficionados and fiction lovers alike.

 

 

 

 

The Terra-Cotta Dog: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery

New York. 2002. November 2002. Viking Press. 0670031380. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 340 pages. hardcover. Jacket illustration by Andy Bridge.  (original title: Il cane di terracotta, 1996 - Sellerio editore via Siracusa 50 Palermo).

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

 

Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano has garnered millions of fans worldwide with his sardonic take on Sicilian life. Montalbano's latest case begins with a mysterious têtê à têtê with a Mafioso, some inexplicably abandoned loot from a supermarket heist, and dying words that lead him to an illegal arms cache in a mountain cave. There, the inspector finds two young lovers, dead for fifty years and still embracing, watched over by a life-sized terra-cotta dog. Montalbano's passion to solve this old crime takes him on a journey through Sicily's past and into one family's darkest secrets. With sly wit and a keen understanding of human nature, Montalbano is a detective whose earthiness, compassion, and imagination make him totally irresistable.

 

 

 

 

The Snack Thief: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery

New York. 2003. May 2003. Viking Press. 0670032239. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 298 pages. hardcover. Jacket illustration by Andy Bridge. (original title: Il ladro di merendine, 1996 - Sellerio editore via Siracusa 50 Palermo).

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

 

In the third book in Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano series, the urbane and perceptive Sicilian detective exposes a viper's nest of government corruption and international intrigue in a compelling new case. When an elderly man is stabbed to death in an elevator and a crewman on an Italian fishing trawler is machine-gunned by a Tunisian patrol boat off Sicily's coast, only Montalbano suspects the link between the two incidents. His investigation leads to the beautiful Karima, an impoverished housecleaner and sometime prostitute, whose young son steals other schoolchildren's midmorning snacks. But Karima disappears, and the young snack thief's life-as well as Montalbano's-is on the line.

 

 

 

Voice Of The Violin: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery

New York. 2003. November 2003. Viking Press. 0670031437. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 249 pages. hardcover. Jacket illustration by Andy Bridge, Jacket design by Paul Buckley.

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

 

Inspector Salvo Montalbano, with his compelling mix of humor, cynicism, and compassion, has been compared to Georges Simenon's, Dashiel Hammett's, and Raymond Chandler's legendary detectives. In this latest novel, Montalbano's gruesome discovery of a lovely, naked young woman suffocated in her bed immediately sets him on a search for her killer. Among the suspects are her aging husband, a famous doctor; a shy admirer, now disappeared; an antiques-dealing lover from Bologna; and the victim's friend Anna, whose charms Montalbano cannot help but appreciate. But it is a mysterious, reclusive violinist who holds the key to this murder.

 

 

 

 

Excursion To Tindari: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery

New York. 2005. Penguin Books. 014303460x. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 295 pages. paperback.  Cover design by Paul Buckley. Cover illustration by Andy Bridge.

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

 

A young Don Juan is found murdered in front of his apartment building early one morning, and an elderly couple is reported missing after an excursion to the ancient site of Tindari - two seemingly unrelated cases for Inspector Montalbano to solve amid the daily complications of life at Vigata police headquarters. But when Montalbano discovers that the couple and the murdered young man lived in the same building, his investigation stumbles onto Sicily’s brutal ‘New Mafia’, which leads him down a path more evil and far-reaching than any he has been on before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Smell Of The Night: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery

New York. 2005. Penguin Books. 0143036203. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 229 pages. paperback. Jacket illustration by Andy Bridge, Jacket design by Paul Buckley.

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

 

The number of Inspector Montalbano fans will continue to grow with this ingenious new novel featuring the earthy and urbane Sicilian detective. Half the retirees in Vigata have invested their savings with a financial wizard who has disappeared, along with their money. As Montalbano investigates this labyrinthine financial scam, he finds himself at a serious disadvantage: a hostile superior has shut him out of the case, he’s on the outs with his lover Livia, and his cherished Sicily is turning so ruthless and vulgar that Montalbano wonders if any part of it is worth saving. Drenched with atmosphere, crackling with wit, THE SMELL OF THE NIGHT is Camilleri at his most addictive.

 

 

 

Rounding The Mark: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery

New York. 2006. Penguin Books. 014303748x. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 304 pages. paperback. Jacket illustration by Andy Bridge, Jacket design by Paul Buckley.

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

 

The earthy and urbane Sicilian detective Inspector Montalbano casts his spell on more and more fans with each new mystery from Andrea Camilleri. Two seemingly unrelated deaths form the central mystery of ROUNDING THE MARK. They will take Montalbano deep into a secret world of illicit trafficking in human lives, and the investigation will test the limits of his physical, psychological, and moral endurance. Disillusioned and no longer believing in the institution he serves, will he withdraw or delve deeper into his work?

 

 

 

The Patience Of The Spider: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery

New York. 2007. Penguin Books. 9780143112037. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 244 pages. paperback. Cover design by Paul Buckley. Cover illustration by Andy Bridge. 

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

 

‘Can a man, approaching the end of his career, rebel a conditions that have kept him where he is?’ Still recovering from his gunshot wound, Inspector Montalbano is feeling the weight of his years, and of his solitude. He’s getting softer, more introspective, and critical of his life choices. But if withdrawing from society has become natural of late, he’ll soon be forced to interact with others, compelled to intervene as a web of hatred and secrets threatens to squeeze its victims to death. This is Montalbano’s most unusual and challenging case yet and the one that will either change him or break him.

 

 

 

The Paper Moon: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery

New York. 2008. Penguin Books. 0143113003. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 264 pages. paperback.  Jacket illustration by Andy Bridge, Jacket design by Paul Buckley.

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

 

With their dark sophistication and dry humor, Andrea Camilleri's classic crime novels continue to win more and more fans in America. The latest installment of the popular mystery series finds the moody Inspector Montalbano further beset by the existential questions that have been plaguing him of late. But he doesn't have much time to wax philosophical before the gruesome murder of a man-shot at point-blank range in the face with his pants down-commands his attention. Add two evasive, beautiful women as prime suspects, some dirty cocaine, mysterious computer codes, and a series of threatening letters, and things soon get very complicated at the police headquarters in Vigàta.

 

 

 

The Wings Of The Sphinx: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery

New York. 2009. Penguin Books. 0143116608. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 231 pages. paperback. Jacket illustration by Andy Bridge, Jacket design by Paul Buckley.

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

 

Things are not going well for Inspector Salvo Montalbano. His relationship with Livia is once again on the rocks and-acutely aware of his age-he is beginning to grow weary of the endless violence he encounters. Then a young woman is found dead, her face half shot off and only a tattoo of a sphinx moth giving any hint of her identity. The tattoo links her to three similarly marked girls-all victims of the underworld sex trade-who have been rescued from the Mafia night-club circuit by a prominent Catholic charity. The problem is, Montalbano's inquiries elicit an outcry from the Church and the three other girls are all missing.

 

 

 

 

August Heat: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery

New York. 2009. Penguin Books. 0143114055. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 278 pages. paperback. Jacket illustration by Andy Bridge, Jacket design by Paul Buckley. 

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

 

When a colleague extends his summer vacation, Inspector Salvo Montalbano is forced to stay in Vigàta and endure the August heat. Montalbano's long-suffering girlfriend, Livia, joins him with a friend-husband and young son in tow-to keep her company during these dog days of summer. But when the boy suddenly disappears into a narrow shaft hidden under the family's beach rental, Montalbano, in pursuit of the child, uncovers something terribly sinister. As the inspector spends the summer trying to solve this perplexing case, Livia refuses to answer his calls-and Montalbano is left to take a plunge that will affect the rest of his life. Fans of the Sicilian inspector as well as readers new to this increasingly popular series will enjoy following the melancholy but unflinchingly moral Montalbano as he undertakes one of the most shocking investigations of his career.

 

 

 

The Track Of Sand: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery

New York. 2010. October 2010. Penguin Books. 9780143117933. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 264 pages. paperback. Cover design by Paul Buckley. Cover illustration by Andy Bridge.

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

Inspector Salvatore Montalbano wakes from strange dreams to find a gruesomely bludgeoned horse carcass in front of his seaside home. When his men came to investigate, the carcass has disappeared, leaving only a trail in the sand. Then his home is ransacked and the inspector is certain that the crimes are linked. As he negotiates both the glittering underworld of horseracing and the Mafia's connection to it, Montalbano is aided by his illiterate housekeeper, Adelina, and a Proustian memory of linguate fritte. Longtime fans and new readers alike will be charmed by Montalbano's blend of unorthodox methods, melancholy self-reflection, and love of good food.

 

 

 

 

The Potter’s Field: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery

New York. 2011.  Penguin Books. 9780143120131. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 277 pages. paperback. Cover design by Paul Buckley. Cover illustration by Andy Bridge.

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

 

Witty and entertaining, the Montalbano novels by Andrea Camilleri-a master of the Italian detective story-have become favorites of mystery fans everywhere. In this latest installment, an unidentified corpse is found near Vigàta, a town known for its soil rich with potter's clay. Meanwhile, a woman reports the disappearance of her husband, a Colombian man with Sicilian origins who turns out to be related to a local mobster. Then Inspector Montalbano remembers the story from the Bible-Judas's betrayal, the act of remorse, and the money for the potter's field, where those of unknown or foreign origin are to be buried-and slowly, through myriad betrayals, finds his way to the solution to the crime.

 

 

 

 

The Age Of Doubt: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery

New York. 2012.  Penguin Books. 9780143120926. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 274 pages. paperback. Cover design by Paul Buckley. Cover illustration by Andy Bridge.

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

 

The day after a storm, Inspector Montalbano encounters a strange woman who expresses interest in a certain yacht scheduled to dock that afternoon. Not long after she's gone, the yacht's crew reports finding a disfigured corpse. Also at anchor is a luxury vessel with a somewhat shady crew. Both boats will have to stay in Vigàta until the investigation is over and, based on information from the woman, Montalbano begins to think the occupants of the yacht might know more about the man's death than they're letting on.

 

 

 

 

 

The Dance of the Seagull: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery

New York. 2013. Penguin Books. 9780143122616. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 277 pages. paperback. Cover design by Paul Buckley. Cover illustration by Andy Bridge.

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

 

Inspector Montalbano musts search for his missing right-hand man. But is he already too late? Before leaving for vacation with Livia, Montalbano witnesses a seagull doing an odd dance on the beach outside his home, when the bird suddenly drops dead. Stopping in at his office for a quick check before heading off, he notices that Fazio is nowhere to be found and soon learns that he was last seen on the docks, secretly working on a case. Montalbano sets out to find him and discovers that the seagull's dance of death may provide the key to understanding a macabre world of sadism, extortion, and murder.

 

 

 

 

Treasure Hunt: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery

New York. 2013. September 2013. Penguin Books. 9780143122623. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli.. 278 pages. paperback. Cover design by Paul Buckley. Cover illustration by Andy Bridge.

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

 

In TREASURE HUNT, Montalbano is hailed as a hero after news cameras film him scaling a building—gun in hand—to capture a pair of unlikely snipers. Shortly after, the inspector begins to receive cryptic messages in verse from someone challenging him to go on a ‘treasure hunt.’ Intrigued, he accepts, treating the messages as amusing riddles—until they take a dangerous turn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Angelica's Smile: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery

New York. 2014. Penguin Books. 9780143123767. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli.. 293 pages. paperback.  Cover design by Paul Buckley. Cover illustration by Andy Bridge.

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

 

The seventeenth installment of the beloved New York Times bestselling series that boasts more than 600,000 books in print The last four books in Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano series have leapfrogged their way up the New York Times bestseller list, perfectly positioning Angelica's Smile to ascend to even greater heights. A rash of burglaries has got Inspector Salvo Montalbano stumped. The criminals are so brazen that their leader, the anonymous Mr. Z, starts sending the Sicilian inspector menacing letters. Among those burgled is the young and beautiful Angelica Cosulich, who reminds the inspector of the love-interest in Ludovico Ariosto's chivalric romance, Orlando Furioso. Besotted by Angelica's charms, Montalbano imagines himself back in the medieval world of jousts and battles. But when one of the burglars turns up dead, Montalbano must snap out of his fantasy and unmask his challenger.

 

 

 

 

A Voice in the Night: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery

New York. 2016. Penguin Books. 9780143126447. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli.. 274 pages. paperback. Cover design by Paul Buckley. Cover illustration by Andy Bridge.

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

 

Two strange deaths lead Inspector Montalbano into investigations of corruption and power in the twentieth novel in the New York Times bestselling series. Montalbano investigates a robbery at a supermarket, a standard case that takes a spin when manager Guido Borsellino is later found hanging in his office. Was it a suicide? The inspector and the coroner have their doubts, and further investigation leads to the director of a powerful local company. Meanwhile, a girl is found brutally murdered in Giovanni Strangio’s apartment—Giovanni has a flawless alibi, and it’s no coincidence that Michele Strangio, president of the province, is his father. Weaving together these two crimes, Montalbano realizes that he’s in a difficult spot where political power is enmeshed with the mafia underworld.

 

 

 

 

A Nest of Vipers: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery

New York. 2017. Penguin Books. 9780143126652. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 261 pages. paperback. Cover design by Paul Buckley. Cover illustration by Andy Bridge.

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

 

A Nest of Vipers is the twenty-first novel in Andrea Camilleri's irresistible Inspector Montalbano series. Quite a family, you had to admit! A nest of vipers might be a better description . . . On what should be a quiet Sunday morning, Inspector Montalbano is called to a murder scene on the Sicilian coast. A man has discovered his father dead in his Vigàtan beach house: his body slumped on the dining room floor, his morning coffee spilt across the table, and a single gunshot wound at the base of his skull. First appearances point to the son having the most to gain from his father’s untimely death, a notion his sister can’t help but reinforce. But when Montalbano delves deeper into the case, and learns of the dishonourable life the victim led, it soon becomes clear half of Vigàta has a motive for his murder and this won’t be as simple as the Inspector had once hoped...

 

 

 

The Pyramid of Mud: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery

New York. 2018. Penguin Books. 9780143128083. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 256 pages. paperback. Cover design by Paul Buckley. Cover illustration by Andy Bridge.

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

 

The latest in the New York Times bestselling series has Italy’s favorite detective uncovering corruption and mafia ties in the world of construction and contracts. On a gloomy morning in Vigàta, a call from Fazio rouses Inspector Montalbano from a nightmare. A man called Giugiù Nicotra has been found dead in the skeletal workings of a construction site, a place now entombed by a sea of mud from recent days of rain and floods. Shot in the back, he had fled into a water supply system tunnel. The investigation gets off to a slow start, but all the evidence points to the world of construction and public contracts, a world just as slimy and impenetrable as mud. As he wades through a world in which construction firms and public officials thrive, Montalbano is obsessed by one thought: that by going to die in the tunnel, Nicotra had been trying to communicate something. The novels of Andrea Camilleri breathe out the sense of place, the sense of humor, and the sense of despair that fills the air of Sicily. —Donna Leon.

 

 

The Overnight Kidnapper: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery

New York. 2019.  Penguin Books. 9780143131137. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 257 pages. paperback. Art by Andy Bridge. Design by Paul Buckley.

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

 

The day gets off to a bad start for Montalbano: while trying to break up a fight on Marinella beach, he hits the wrong man and is stopped by the Carabinieri. When he finally gets to the office, the inspector learns about a strange abduction: a woman was abducted, drugged, and then released unharmed only hours later. Within a few days, the same thing happens again. Both women are thirty years old and work in a bank. Montalbano also has to deal with an arson case. A shop has burned down, and its owner, Marcello Di Carlo, seems to have vanished into thin air. At first this seems like a trivial case, but a third abduction—yet again of a girl who works in a bank—and the discovery of a body bring up new questions.

 

 

 

 

The Other End of the Line: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery

New York. 2019. Penguin Books. 9780143133773. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 290 pages. paperback. Art by Andy Bridge. Design by Paul Buckley.

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

 

A wave of refugees has arrived on the Sicilian coast, and Inspector Montalbano and his team have been stationed at port, alongside countless volunteers, to receive and assist the newcomers. Meanwhile, Livia has promised their presence at a friend’s wedding, and the inspector, agreeing to get a new suit tailored, meets the charming master seamstress Elena Biasini. But while on duty at the dock one late night, tragedy strikes, and Elena is found gruesomely murdered. Between managing the growing crowds at the landing, Montalbano delves into the world of garments, in the company of an orphaned cat, where he works to weave together the loose threads of the unsolved crimes and close the case. Wholly addictive, entirely magical series, set in Sicily and starring a detective unlike any other in crime fiction… altogether transporting.–A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author.

 

 

 

Early Montalbano:

 

 

 

Montalbano’s First Case and Other Stories

New York. 2016. Penguin Books. 9780143121626. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 538 pages. paperback. Cover design by Paul Buckley. Cover illustration by Andy Bridge.

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

 

From the author of the New York Times–bestselling Inspector Montalbano mystery series, twenty-one short stories spanning the beloved detective’s career. Inspector Montalbano has charmed readers in nineteen popular novels, and now in Montalbano’s First Case and Other Stories, Andrea Camilleri has selected twenty-one short stories, written with his trademark wit and humor, that follow Italy’s famous detective through highlight cases of his career. From the title story, featuring a young deputy Montalbano newly assigned to Vigàta, to Montalbano Says No, in which the inspector makes a late-night call to Camilleri himself to refuse an outlandish case, this collection is an essential addition to any Inspector Montalbano fan’s bookshelf and a wonderful way to introduce readers to the internationally bestselling series.

 

 

Death at Sea: Montalbano’s Early Cases

New York. 2018. Penguin Books. 9780143108818. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 276 pages. paperback. Cover design and illustration by Andy Bridge.

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER -  

 

You either love Andrea Camilleri or you haven’t read him yet. Each novel in this wholly addictive, entirely magical series, set in Sicily and starring a detective unlike any other in crime fiction, blasts the brain like a shot of pure oxygen... transporting. Long live Camilleri, and long live Montalbano.
—A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window. Set on the Sicilian coast, a collection of eight short stories featuring the young Inspector Montalbano. In 1980s Vigàta, a restless Inspector Montalbano brings his bold investigative style to eight enthralling cases. From jilted lovers and deadly family affairs to assassination attempts and murders in unexpected places, Death at Sea is the perfect collection to escape into Andrea Camilleri's unforgettable slice of Sicily.

 

 

 

Some non-Montalbano novels:

 

 

Hunting Season: A Novel

New York. 2014. Penguin Books. 9780143126539. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 152 pages. paperback. Cover design by Kristen Haff and John Hendrix. Cover illustration by John Hendrix.

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

 

From internationally bestselling author Andrea Camilleri, a brilliant, bawdy comedy that will surprise even the most die-hard Montalbano fans. In 1880s Vigàta, a stranger comes to town to open a pharmacy. Fofò turns out to be the son of a man legendary for having a magic garden stocked with plants, fruits, and vegetables that could cure any ailment-a man who was found murdered years ago. Fofò escaped, but now has reappeared looking to make his fortune and soon finds himself mixed up in the dealings of a philandering local marchese set on producing an heir. An absurd, quirky murder mystery that recalls the most hilarious and farcical scenes of Shakespeare and The Canterbury Tales, Hunting Season will introduce American readers to a refreshing new aspect of one of our best-loved writers.

 

 

The Revolution of the Moon

New York. 2017.  Europa Editions. 9781609453916. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 235 pages. paperback. Graphic design by Emanuele Ragnisco.

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

 

From the author of the Inspector Montalbano series comes the remarkable account of an exceptional woman who rises to power in 17th century Sicily and brings about sweeping changes that threaten the iron-fisted patriarchy, before being cast out in a coup after only 27 days. Sicily, April 16 1677. From his deathbed, Charles III's viceroy, Anielo de Guzmán y Carafa, marquis of Castle Rodrigo, names his wife, Doña Eleonora, as his successor. Eleonora de Moura is a highly intelligent and capable woman who immediately applies her political acumen to heal the scarred soul of Palermo, a city afflicted by poverty, misery, and the frequent uprisings they entail. The Marquise implements measures that include lowering the price of bread, reducing taxes for large families, re-opening women's care facilities, and establishing stipends for young couples wishing to marry—all measures that were considered seditious by the conservative city fathers and by the Church. The machinations of powerful men soon result in Doña Eleonora, whom the Church sees as a dangerous revolutionary, being recalled to Spain. Her rule lasted 27 days—one cycle of the moon. Based on a true story, Camilleri's gripping and richly imagined novel tells the story of a woman whose courage and political vision is tested at every step by misogyny and reactionary conservatism.

 

 

 

 

 

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 What I have been reading lately...

 

 

 

 

 

 These 3 by Cedric Robinson are well worth the time:

 

 

Robinson, Cedric J.. On Racial Capitalism, Black Internationalism, and Cultures of Resistance

Pluto Press. 2019. London. 9780745340036. Edited by H. L. T. Quan. Foreword by Ruth Wilson Gilmore. 382 pages. paperback. Photo: Elizabeth Robinson. Cover: Melanie Patrick.

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

 

Cedric J. Robinson is considered one of the doyens of Black Studies and a pioneer in study of the Black Radical Tradition. His works have been essential texts, deconstructing racial capitalism and inspiring insurgent movements from Ferguson to the West Bank. For the first time, Robinson's essays come together, spanning over four decades and reflective of his diverse interests in the interconnections between culture and politics, radical social theory and classic and modern political philosophy. Themes explored include Africa and Black internationalism, World politics, race and US Foreign Policy, representations of Blackness in popular culture, and reflections on popular resistance to racial capitalism, white supremacy and more. Accompanied by an introduction by H. L. T. Quan and a foreword by Ruth Wilson Gilmore, this collection, which includes previously unpublished materials, extends the many contributions by a giant in Black radical thought.

 

 

 

Robinson, Cedric J.. Black Movements In America

 

New York. 1997. Routledge. 0415912237. 192 pages. hardcover.

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

 

In Black Movements in America, Cedric Robinson traces the emergence of Black political cultures in the United States from slave resistances in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to the civil rights movements of the present. Drawing on historical records, Robinson argues that Blacks have constructed both a culture of resistance and a culture of accommodation based on the radically different experiences of slaves and free Blacks. Robinson concludes that contemporary Black movements are inspired by either a social vision - held by the relatively privileged strata - which holds the American nation to its ideals and public representation, and another - that of the masses - which interprets the Black experience in America as proof of the country's venality and hypocrisy.

 

 

 

 

 

Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition by Cedric J. Robinson.

 

Chapel Hill. 2000. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN:9780807848296. Foreword by Robin D. G. Kelley. With a new preface by the author. 436 pages. paperback.

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

 

In this ambitious work, first published in 1983, Cedric Robinson demonstrates that efforts to understand black people's history of resistance solely through the prism of Marxist theory are incomplete and inaccurate. Marxist analyses tend to presuppose European models of history and experience that downplay the significance of black people and black communities as agents of change and resistance. Black radicalism must be linked to the traditions of Africa and the unique experiences of blacks on western continents, Robinson argues, and any analyses of African American history need to acknowledge this. To illustrate his argument, Robinson traces the emergence of Marxist ideology in Europe, the resistance by blacks in historically oppressive environments, and the influence of both of these traditions on such important twentieth-century black radical thinkers as W. E. B. Du Bois, C. L. R. James, and Richard Wright.

 

 

       

Cedric Robinson (November 5, 1940 – June 5, 2016) was a professor in the Department of Black Studies and the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). He headed the Department of Black Studies and the Department of Political Science and served as the Director of the Center for Black Studies Research. Robinson's areas of interest included classical and modern political philosophy, radical social theory in the African diaspora, comparative politics, and the relationships between and among media and politics. 

 

 

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Morrison, Toni. What Moves At The Margin: Selected Nonfiction

Jackson. 2008. University Press Of Mississippi. 9781604730173. Edited & With An Introduction by Carolyn C. Denard. 215 pages. hardcover. Cover photo of Toni Morrison by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders.

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

 

Thirty years of the Nobel Laureate’s reflections on life, writing, and other writers - What Moves at the Margin collects three decades of Toni Morrison’s writings about her work, her life, literature, and American society. The works included in this volume range from 1971, when Morrison (b. 1931) was a new editor at Random House and a beginning novelist, to 2002 when she was a professor at Princeton University and Nobel Laureate. Even in the early days of her career, in between editing other writers, writing her own novels, and raising two children, she found time to speak out on subjects that mattered to her. From the reviews and essays written for major publications to her moving tributes to other writers to the commanding acceptance speeches for major literary awards, Morrison has consistently engaged as a writer outside the margins of her fiction. These works provide a unique glimpse into Morrison’s viewpoint as an observer of the world, the arts, and the changing landscape of American culture. The first section of the book, ‘Family and History,’ includes Morrison’s writings about her family, Black women, Black history, and her own works. The second section, ‘Writers and Writing,’ offers her assessments of writers she admires and books she reviewed, edited at Random House, or gave a special affirmation to with a foreword or an introduction. The final section, ‘Politics and Society,’ includes essays and speeches where Morrison addresses issues in American society and the role of language and literature in the national culture. Among other pieces, this collection includes a reflection on 9/11, reviews of such seminal books by Black writers as Albert Murray’s South to a Very Old Place and Gayl Jones’s Corregidora, an essay on teaching moral values in the university, a eulogy for James Baldwin, and Morrison’s Nobel lecture. Taken together, What Moves at the Margin documents the response to our time by one of American literature’s most thoughtful and eloquent writers.

 

Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford; February 18, 1931 – August 5, 2019), known as Toni Morrison, was an American novelist, essayist, book editor, and college professor. Her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970. The critically acclaimed Song of Solomon (1977) brought her national attention and won the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 1988, Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved (1987); she gained worldwide recognition when she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. Born and raised in Lorain, Ohio, Morrison graduated from Howard University in 1953 and went to graduate school at Cornell University. She later taught English at Howard University and also married and had two children before divorcing in 1964. In the late 1960s, she became the first black female editor in fiction at Random House in New York City. In the 1970s and 1980s, she developed her own reputation as an author, and her perhaps most celebrated work, Beloved, was made into a 1998 film. In 1996, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected her for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. Also that year, she was honored with the National Book Foundation's Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. On May 29, 2012, President Barack Obama presented Morrison with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2016, she received the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction.

 

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Davis, Mike and Wiener, Jon. Set the Night on fire: L.A. in the Sixties

 

London/New York. 2020. Verso. 9781784780227. 788 pages. hardcover. Cover design by Matt Dorfman.

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

 

A magisterial, riveting movement history of Los Angeles in the Sixties. Los Angeles in the sixties was a hotbed of political and social upheaval. The city was a launchpad for Black Power—where Malcolm X and Angela Davis first came to prominence and the Watts uprising shook the nation. The city was home to the Chicano Blowouts and Chicano Moratorium, as well as being the birthplace of “Asian American” as a political identity. It was a locus of the antiwar movement, gay liberation movement, and women’s movement, and, of course, the capital of California counterculture. Mike Davis and Jon Wiener provide the first comprehensive movement history of L.A. in the sixties, drawing on extensive archival research and dozens of interviews with principal figures, as well as the authors’ storied personal histories as activists. Following on from Davis’s award-winning L.A. history, City of Quartz, Set the Night on Fire is a historical tour de force, delivered in scintillating and fiercely beautiful prose. “Authoritative and impressive.” –Los Angeles Times. “Monumental.” –Guardian.

 

 

Mike Davis is the author of City of Quartz, Late Victorian Holocausts, Buda’s Wagon, and Planet of Slums. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and the Lannan Literary Award. He lives in San Diego. Jon Wiener is a longtime Contributing Editor at the Nation and host and producer of Start Making Sense, the magazine’s weekly podcast. He is an Emeritus Professor of U.S. history at UC Irvine, and his books include Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files and How We Forgot the Cold War: A Historical Journey across America. He lives in Los Angeles.

 

 

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Kavan, Anna. Asylum Piece

Garden City. 1946. Doubleday. 312 pages. hardcover.

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

 

The first six of her novels gave little indication of the experimental and disturbing nature of her later work. ASYLUM PIECE, a collection of short stories which explored the inner mindscape of the psychological explorer, heralded the new style and content of Kavan's writing. They were published after she was institutionalized for a heroin-related breakdown and suicide attempt. After her release, Kavan changed her name legally and set about a new career as an avant-garde writer in the mode of Franz Kafka. Her development of ‘nocturnal language’ involved the lexicon of dreams and addiction, mental instability and alienation. She has been compared to Djuna Barnes, Virginia Woolf and Anaïs Nin, as well as Kafka. (Nin was an admirer and unsuccessfully pursued a correspondence with Kavan.) On one occasion Kavan collaborated with her analyst and close friend, Karl Theodor Bluth, in writing ‘The Horse's Tale’ (1949).

 

 

Kavan, Anna. The House Of Sleep

Garden City. 1947. Doubleday. 223 pages. hardcover.

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

 

This is writing which probes far into the mysterious world of dreams and night shadows. It is the story of a girl who has rejected normal relationships for what seemed to her the greater realities - a borderline world she inhabits at night. Exploring this new world of symbols she relives parts of her past life: Her childhood and the mother who died when she was young: Herr relations with her father who was always too busy to answer the questions she was afraid to ask; Her days at school when she found herself unable to accept authority; The stupidity of the family doctor who was not equipped to understand or prescribe a cure for her problems; Her days at the university where people were kinder to her, but where she was unable to accept friends because she had grown to mistrust all kindness. Anna Kavan is acknowledged in England as one of the most significant writers of her generation. As a lay worker in the field of mental illness, she speaks from something very akin to personal experience.

 

 

 

Kavan, Anna. Ice

Garden City. 1970. Doubleday. Introduction by Brian W. Aldiss. 176 pages. hardcover. Jacket by Alan Peckolick.

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

 

Earth was doomed. Slowly and inexorably the world was entering a new and cataclysmic ice age. Like a plodding giant, walls of ice were covering the earth leaving in its wake total annihilation of life. And this great natural horror had been caused by the world's most brilliant scientists—one too many nuclear bombs had been released and the balance of nature had been irreparably altered. And where ice and snow hadn't knifed their way into the land, ravaging and brutal wars were taking their toll. Through this surrealistic nightmare of ice and ultimate death, two men search for a strangely elusive girl. One, referred to only as the Warden, becomes a military power in his own right when the wars begin. A cruel, sadistic, merciless man he seems the total personification of Man's negative qualities. The narrator is the other man, and while he searches and nearly dies in pursuit of his quarry, he is never quite sure what it is that drives him to her. For those few times when he does locate her, she escapes his grasp explaining that she would rather die than be with either him or the Warden. A deceptively simple plot becomes a chilling tour de force in the capable hands of Miss Kavan as she comments on the human condition both today and tomorrow. And her thoughts are all the more harrowing because of the basic truths they reveal.

 

 

 

Anna Kavan (10 April 1901-5 December 1968; born Helen Emily Woods) was a British novelist, short story writer and painter. Kavan was addicted to heroin for most of her adult life, a dependency which was generally undetected by her associates, and for which she made no apologies. She is popularly supposed to have died of a heroin overdose. In fact she died of heart failure, though she had attempted suicide several times during her life. An inveterate traveler, Kavan spent twenty-two months of World War II in New Zealand, and it was that country's proximity to the inhospitable frozen landscape of Antarctica that inspired the writing of ICE. This post-apocalyptic novel brought critical acclaim, earning Kavan the Brian Aldiss Science Fiction Book of the Year award in 1967, the year before Kavan's death. She died at her home in Kensington on 5 December 1968.

 

 

 

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