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  • Published: 18 August 2026
  • ISBN: 9781405973908
  • Imprint: Viking Fiction
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 224
  • RRP: $28.99

A House in Sicily



A sun soaked, hilarious mediation on family life in mid-century Italy – an incredibly exciting rediscovered Italian classic

During WWII, a young Tuscan woman falls in love with a man from the rural depths of southern Italy. As the conflict finally draws to a close, the two travel from Rome to finally meet with his family. But very quickly a dawning realisation breaks: her in-laws and their friends are eccentric in the extreme. They barely leave the house and they rarely speak to their son, fretting instead about their ‘daughter’ – a loud little dog – and worrying constantly, incessantly, about the weather. And, worst of all, they speak with a nostalgic warmth about the region’s recently overthrown fascist regime…

Translated by Ann Goldstein, the world-renowned translator of Elena Ferrante, A House in Sicily is a brilliantly funny, razor sharp examination of family life in the shadow of the darkest period of modern Italian history, and the most exciting rediscovered European classic in decades.

  • Published: 18 August 2026
  • ISBN: 9781405973908
  • Imprint: Viking Fiction
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 224
  • RRP: $28.99

About the author

Luisa Adorno

Luisa Adorno (1921 – 2021) was a writer and journalist, contributing throughout her career to Italy’s most important newspapers. Her books L'ultima provincia (1983), Le dorate stanze (1985, Winner of Premio Prato-Europa and Premio Pisa), Arco di luminara (1990, Winner of Premio Viareggio and Premio Racalmare-Leonardo Sciascia), La libertà ha un cappello a cilindro (1993), Come a un ballo in maschera (1995, Premio Donna Martina Franca), Sebben che siamo donne... (1999, Premio Vittorini), Foglia d'acero with Daniele Pecorini-Manzoni (2001) and Tutti qui con me (2008) are all published in Italy by Sellerio, and since her death have been republished to renewed critical acclaim.

Praise for A House in Sicily

In this book Luisa Adorno describes Italian institutions with brilliancy, verve and irony

Leonardo Sciascia