What do art, literature, history, travel, politics, food, and the Mafia have in common? All are components of the rich and storied culture of Italy and all come together in Peter Robb's marvelously imaginative MIDNIGHT IN SICILY. Using the criminal trial of some of Sicily's most notorious Mafiosi as his centerpoint, Robb interweaves the various strands of his subjects into a seamless tapestry that leaves the reader with a voyeuristic fascination, combining fear of what one may find with a paralyzing inability to look away.

The Mafia --- or Cosa Nostra --- faded during Mussolini's stranglehold on the country during WWII. After the Allied invasion of Italy, however, two Italian-born mobsters helped the Mafia regain power. Lucky Luciano and Vito Genovese had garnered a certain infamy in the '30s and '40s in the U. S. and their repatriation in 1946 would change Italy forever.

Little by little, the Cosa Nostra began to entrench themselves into Italian society, pocketing both land and politicians via a combination of bribes and the systematic elimination of any obstacles. Disappearance and murder became an ever-increasing phenomenon until the 1980s, when all-out war was declared. When lifetime senator and seven-time prime minister Giulio Andreotti was arrested for his Mafia connections, things reached a boiling point. Several magistrates --- including the legendary Giovanni Falcone --- along with numerous state officials and journalists were blatantly murdered in retaliation for their attempts to bring the Cosa Nostra to justice.

Robb documents the criminal intrigue with terrifying exactness, while relaying the cultural and historical background needed to understand the underpinning motivations and consequent repercussions as the events unfold. While wandering the labyrinthine alleyways of Palermo and pondering the dizzying maze that is the Italian political machine, Robb happens on an outdoor market that eerily mirrors the bloody reality of the streets:

"The swordfish and tuna were flanked by many smaller fish, striped mackerel and fat sardines, and squid and prawns and octopus and cuttlefish... I remember how the diffused red light of the market enhanced the translucent red of the big fishes' flesh and the silver glitter of the smaller ones' skins. The meat was bright red too, redder than usual in this hot muted light. The eye passed more rapidly over the rows of kids' heads with melancholy deep black eyes. There were coils of pearly intestines. There was horse flesh and beef and pork and veal and skinny Mediterranean kids and lambs. There were pale yellow chooks strung up by their bright yellow feet, red crest downmost, and batteries of eggs."

The narrative of the trial and its various components is continually interrupted by wonderfully esoteric tangents, from mouthwatering descriptions of meals indulged in to an expose on the history of the fork. The etymology of a particular word meanders to an examination of the quality of coffee in various Italian cities, as Robb comments that the coffee in Rome is often undrinkable, while in Palermo the coffee is excellent. One journalist notes that for Sicilians the ideal espresso "is a black drop containing a superconcentration of all the caffeine in the world."

Robb's examinations and opinions on Italian art and the country's literary influences are a marvel, yet one is jolted back into the heart of the Italian midnight by the continual juxtaposition of poetic passages with distinctly matter-of-fact prose: "The head decomposing on the front seat and the body found when the car boot was cautiously opened had both belonged to a Roman lawyer. He'd last been seen lunching at the Hotel Royal on the seafront at Santa Lucia, looking out on the boat harbour with its yachts and contraband fleet and the ancient castel dell'Ovo, and beyond to the bay of Naples, Capri and Vesuvius. The lawyer had been an unsavory type even in one piece."

The great Italian novelist Leonardo Sciascia called Sicily "a metaphor for the modern world." It is a place where life is lived intensely, for the shroud of death hangs ominously over everyone. Art and literature hold a lofty place in the societal hierarchy, while food and the appetites of the flesh form its heart. Braided like arteries through the diverse body of this country are the darker avenues of the human spirit represented by the Cosa Nostra. Peter Robb uses masterful brushstrokes to paint a portrait that captures the seductive beauty and the paradoxes of this intricately complex island.