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A comment on The novelist who took on the Italian mafia – and lived to tell the tale.

Re:The novelist who took on the Italian mafia – and lived to... by antirez on Saturday January 31, 2026 @05:15AM (#46835238)
Sciascia, btw, is one of the biggest thinkers and writers of '900. It is not really defined by his mafia-related novels and takes. He used to be friend with Borges, and was regarded as one of the top men in humanistic culture. Disclaimer: I was born in a town (Campobello di Licata) near his town (Racalmuto), but I'm not saying this because of this fact.

If you never read Sciascia, I suggest you starting from his last, tiny novel: "Una storia semplice". I believe there are English translations that can be found around as ebook or used on eBay.

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Re:The novelist who took on the Italian mafia – and lived to... by silcoon on Saturday January 31, 2026 @03:15PM (#46840348)
Truly great Italian literature. Also “The day of the Owl” is another famous Sciascia’s book with old mafia theme.
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Re:The novelist who took on the Italian mafia – and lived to... by nine_k on Saturday January 31, 2026 @03:55PM (#46840750)
Nit: I suppose you mean 1900s, not just "'900". I mean, one could reasonably suspect that good writers existed in Italy in early 10th century, too.
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Re:The novelist who took on the Italian mafia – and lived to... by Tom1380 on Sunday February 01, 2026 @03:01PM (#46848882)
See my other comment
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Re:The novelist who took on the Italian mafia – and lived to... by etherus on Saturday January 31, 2026 @06:17PM (#46841912)
As an aside, do you use dvorak as your keyboard layout? The ' for 1 typo is quite rare with qwerty, but I could see you meaning '1900s, though that becomes two characters in a short space. Thanks for the recommendation!
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Re:The novelist who took on the Italian mafia – and lived to... by lIl-IIIl on Sunday February 01, 2026 @03:02AM (#46844408)
I think it's an Italian convention.

https://areasosta.com/faq/come-si-scrive-900-in-italiano

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Re:The novelist who took on the Italian mafia – and lived to... by Tom1380 on Sunday February 01, 2026 @03:02PM (#46848895)
I thought I had replied to you, but somehow I ended up replying to Antirez's original comment. See my other comment
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Re:The novelist who took on the Italian mafia – and lived to... by Tom1380 on Sunday February 01, 2026 @07:40AM (#46845821)
It's not a typo. In Italian, we call the nineteen hundreds the nine hundreds in speech. So when we write it, we use '900s. As 900s without it would be the actual 900s
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