One of the things Andrea Camilleri does best (apart from his Montalbano novels and their screen adaptations) is to dig up some obscure slice of Sicilian history and recount it in a quasi-novelistic fashion. The subject of this book lends itself well to this treatment since it hovers between fact and fiction, history and legend.

In 1945, Sicily is shocked at the news of an assassination attempt on Giovanni Battista Perruzzo, the Bishop of Agrigento, much loved for his brave stand in favour of the working classes. Perruzzo spends several days fighting for his life but eventually survives and recovers. Eleven years later, the Mother Superior of a Benedictine convent writes a letter to the Bishop revealing that in the few days he spent in the shadow of death, ten nuns agreed to “give up their life” in exchange for his – a gift “which the Lord accepted”. What happened exactly? Did ten nuns actually starve themselves to death, as the letter suggests?

Although this episode is possibly, or even probably, apocryphal (Camilleri himself admits that there is no hard proof for it and much of the evidence is based on hearsay and imaginative interpretation) it provides a good excuse for the author’s conversational recollections and ruminations about post-war Sicily, the “latifondo” agrarian system, faith, monastic life, Catholic morals and end-of-life ethics. A quick and enjoyable, but not particularly substantial, read which raises more questions than it answers. ( )

One of the things Andrea Camilleri does best (apart from his Montalbano novels and their screen adaptations) is to dig up some obscure slice of Sicilian history and recount it in a quasi-novelistic fashion. The subject of this book lends itself well to this treatment since it hovers between fact and fiction, history and legend.

In 1945, Sicily is shocked at the news of an assassination attempt on Giovanni Battista Perruzzo, the Bishop of Agrigento, much loved for his brave stand in favour of the working classes. Perruzzo spends several days fighting for his life but eventually survives and recovers. Eleven years later, the Mother Superior of a Benedictine convent writes a letter to the Bishop revealing that in the few days he spent in the shadow of death, ten nuns agreed to “give up their life” in exchange for his – a gift “which the Lord accepted”. What happened exactly? Did ten nuns actually starve themselves to death, as the letter suggests?

Although this episode is possibly, or even probably, apocryphal (Camilleri himself admits that there is no hard proof for it and much of the evidence is based on hearsay and imaginative interpretation) it provides a good excuse for the author’s conversational recollections and ruminations about post-war Sicily, the “latifondo” agrarian system, faith, monastic life, Catholic morals and end-of-life ethics. A quick and enjoyable, but not particularly substantial, read which raises more questions than it answers. ( )

To say the truth , when I picked up "Le Pecore e il Pastore" I didn't think that it could be anything else, but a whodonnit. Everything I've ever read by Camilleri until now was so, and written in the same kind of Sicilian dialect. So it was a surprise to realize, after some pages, that this was actually a "real story". At the beginning I didn't feel very attracted to it. I dwelt on historical facts that either I knew about, or where "Italian" enough to make them unsurprising. But, boy, once you get to the knot of the story your hair stands on end, even more knowing that this is actually happened. ( )

En la Sicilia de 1945, mientras se halla descansando cerca del convento de Santo Stefano, el obispo de Agrigento sufre un atentado que lo deja al borde de la muerte. Monseñor Peruzzo no es un prelado cualquiera. Es muy querido por el pueblo porque en el conflicto sobre la propiedad de las tierras ocupadas se ha alineado con los trabajadores frente a los latifundistas, así que la noticia de que su vida está en peligro conmociona a toda la isla, y la gente se pone a rezar por su salvación. Pero ni siquiera el mismo obispo tendrá constancia hasta transcurridos muchos años de una de las demostraciones de amor y sacrificio más incomprensibles de nuestro tiempo. ( )