He puts herself “in the nest of others”, as the wife of Commissioner Maigret says when the husband is sneak in the house of other people for his investigations, Commissioner Scipione Macchiavelli who, in 1964, from Rome arrived in Noto in «Welcome crime. An investigation by Scipione Macchiavelli “(Einaudi) by Cristina Cassar Scalia. And of the new character, after the deputy chief Vanina Guarrasi, consecrated by numerous novels and a successful TV series, the writer and medical medical Netina already speaks with affection, while telling the known of that time, streets, places, monuments, churches, the historian Caffè Sicilia, and the social dynamics.
When, for a disciplinary measure, Scipione arrives in Noto believes to find, as they had proposed to him, “a quiet town, without mafia – says Cassar Scalia – a” Babba province “as at the time there was no organized crime or particular crimes. And instead The same day in which he sets foot in Noto, who discovers a latitude under Tunis on the Atlas, a well -known person disappears, the bank manager. A case that involves an investigation carried out to the Maigret, with the same systems, without having almost anything available, between rumors and omortic resistance of the people “. In the bookstore from 13 May, «Welcome crime. An investigation by Scipione Macchiavelli “has already jumped at the top of the rankings (and will be presented in Messina on June 25 at 5 pm, in the Aula Magna del Rettorato, with Daniela Bonanzinga and Massimiliano Cavaleri).
A new adventure, this time with a commissioner.
“And with a commissioner man … was born from an idea of a long time ago developed over time. Initially I only knew the name and the origin: Scipione Macchiavelli from Rome, and nothing else. I don’t know how this name was born, but I liked it because it sounded well, the same thing that happened with Vanina Guarrasi. Then when I developed the world of Scipione, at that point I wanted to write it. Scipione is a thirty -year -old, in an era in which at that age he was adults and possibly fathers of the family. It is a bachelor, sensitive to female charm, the son of a very united family, excellent education and did not want to follow in the footsteps of his father lawyer for a precise reason: he studied the penal code to apply it, to pursue criminals and not to find one day to defend one. He makes the police officer, but he only dealt with very simple cases, having directed the small police station via Veneto di Roma, a place and name of fantasy, where he finds himself in the center of the “Dolce Vita”, between parties and lounges so much as to have earned the nickname “paparazzo”. Until a disciplinary measure with immediate effect, which also causes a break with his father, makes him transfer to Noto ».
Where it is welcomed with a crime …
«He is welcomed very well as a police officer who comes from the capital, but he has to deal with his first real case. Fortunately, people of experience like the Catalan marshal and the Mantus Brigadier has around people, who admires because he realizes that they are good policemen. Which he does not believe he is. And every time you with reasoning or intuition comes before Catalan, it is amazed at himself, so a little at a time it becomes aware that so badly it is not as a policeman ».
Known, your city. An act of love have put it at the center of the narrative?
«I wanted to tell a well -known different from that of today. It was not always a destination for tourism as it was, however, Taormina. In 1964 there were no restaurants or hotels, and Scipione himself lived in a “pensioner house”. But even later, I myself lived childhood and adolescence in a city that fell into pieces, my high school also collapsed and not for the earthquake. On the other hand, I liked to let it know that in 1964 in Noto, unlike other neighboring countries, there were a lively society and all in all cultured, some noble families, high schools. In Scipione, as the judge Siracusano his friend says, “could go worse” and although he leads a life far from that of the capital this investigation leads him to attend high and medium bourgeoisie and noble families. Although, as for social dynamics and female condition, always in 1964 in Sicily it was ».
You said several times that Vanina does not respond to Sicilian stereotypes. And here?
“It was more difficult here. Scipione understands that if he has not ended up in the country narrated by Pietro Germi, just go out in rural areas or villages to find that world there. In Noto some stereotypes break and in fact on New Year’s Eve Scipione finds himself at a party organized inside the municipal theater with girls and boys who dance (under the watchful eye of the parents), but that Sicily is there and the dynamics of the judicial case takes place a little to Sciascia, with the anonymous letter, the rumors. It was the Italian province of the time, especially of Southern Italy and, as Sciascia said, “if you have not known Sicily well you will not understand Italy” “.
And speaking of breaking stereotypes, there is Giulia …
«Giulia is a beautiful female character, she graduated, she is a pharmacist of the pharmacy by decision of the father, which at the time broke the patterns, she is not married, smokes. He is friendly, but he has a certain authority towards people, enjoys respectability and keeps men away, which is immediately said to Scipio, who is attracted to it from the first moment ».
And how is Vanina?
«Vanina is fine and in fact I will now start writing about her too, I think within the year Vanina will return with a new book. As for Scipione, I don’t know where it will go but I hope that people’s affection will capture ».