La Macchia by Salvatore Requirez

Prince Alfonso Montero, kidnapped by Tunisian corsairs, manages to escape after twenty years of captivity in Africa and return home. He finds his city changed and, above all, discovers that someone has taken possession of his identity, his family, and everything that once belonged to him. Also worried about the son he has never met, he is overwhelmed by the impostor’s power and forced to live under a false name. His father’s will, however, sheds light on an unknown past and on a mystery that will turn events around. Stories of crimes, loves, corruption, and betrayals intersect with real events reported in the news, thanks to a chronological reconstruction based on the diaries of the Marquis of Villabianca, a refined Sicilian historian. The impostor will be brought to justice after lengthy trials and difficulties, but the prince’s suffering is far from over. The anguishing pressure of the morality of the time will mark his life forever, in the most painful way possible. Using authentic language drawn from the forms and documents of the period, enriched with vernacular expressions, Requirez gives us another intense historical novel that inspires multiple reflections. A journey far back in time, a glimpse of eighteenth-century Sicily, revealing how certain aspects of life at that time are still highly relevant today.