Italy — The Book Roads

Books from Italy

Samuel Kolawole

Able God is a bright young Nigerian man with an engineering degree, a love of chess, and hopes for a better future. But instead of building the life he imagined, he works long hours delivering room service at a luxury hotel, serving wealthy guests while struggling to make ends meet. When an encounter with a powerful and dangerous hotel guest turns violent, Able God finds himself caught in a situation that leaves him with few options. Fearing the consequences, he flees Nigeria and joins a group of migrants travelling across the Sahara toward Europe. Led by a charismatic religious figure, the travellers embark on a perilous journey through Niger and Libya, hoping to reach a place where they can begin again. Instead, they encounter human traffickers, starvation, exploitation, and violence. As survival becomes his only priority, Able God is forced to question his beliefs about morality, faith, and the possibility of a better life. In The Road to the Salt Sea, Samuel Kolawole offers a powerful portrait of migration, exposing the human cost of inequality and the desperate choices made by those seeking safety and opportunity beyond their homeland.

2024

A Sultan in Palermo (The Islam Quintet)

Tariq Ali

Set in Sicily in 1153, A Sultan in Palermo explores a fascinating period when Norman rulers governed an island deeply shaped by Arab and Muslim culture. Palermo is a flourishing centre of learning, where Arabic language and intellectual traditions remain influential despite the political dominance of Christian rulers. At the heart of the novel is Muhammad al-Idrisi, a celebrated Muslim cartographer and scholar, who serves King Roger II of Sicily, known to his Muslim subjects as Sultan Rujari. As Idrisi navigates his friendship with the ageing ruler, he becomes increasingly torn between loyalty to the royal court and solidarity with fellow Muslims who are resisting Norman rule or preparing to leave the island. Surrounded by political intrigue, religious tensions, and personal desires, he must confront the moral compromises of life under an increasingly unstable regime. Blending historical figures with imaginative storytelling, Tariq Ali explores cultural coexistence, the struggle for power, and the fragile relationship between political authority and personal conscience. The novel is the fourth book in Ali’s Islam Quintet.

2026

Three Sisters

Jojo Moyes

Three estranged sisters reunite at their wealthy father’s villa on the sun-drenched Italian island of Capri, nearly a decade after their family fell apart. Cora, Diana, and Kiki have built very different lives, but their unpredictable father has summoned them for a reason none of them expects. When his shocking announcement exposes old wounds and deepens their mistrust, the sisters must confront the secrets that have kept them apart. A witty, emotional family drama about sisterhood, betrayal, forgiveness, and the possibility of starting over.

2027

The Anniversary

Andrea Bajani

Can you walk away from your family and never look back? Ten years after cutting all contact with his parents, an unnamed narrator reflects on the childhood and family life he left behind. His father ruled the household through violence, intimidation, and fear, while his mother quietly endured her husband’s control, gradually disappearing into the background of her own life. As the narrator revisits these painful memories, he begins to understand the cost of silence and the complicated ties that bind children to their parents. Both an intimate family portrait and a sharp critique of patriarchal power, The Anniversary asks whether breaking away from those who raised us is an act of betrayal—or a necessary step toward freedom.

2025

The Unbreakable Heart of Oliva Denaro

Viola Ardone

Sicily, 1960s. Fifteen-year-old Oliva Denaro loves running through the countryside and dreams of a life beyond the strict rules imposed on girls. But when a local boy decides he wants her, Oliva discovers how little control a young woman has over her own future in a society ruled by tradition and shame. Inspired by a true story, this moving novel follows Oliva’s courageous struggle to reclaim her freedom in a world that expects women to remain silent. Through her determination, Viola Ardone explores the cost of defiance and the extraordinary strength it takes to say no when everyone expects you to obey.

2021

Famous authors from Italy

Donatella Di Pietrantonio

About Italy

Italy stretches from the Alps in the north to the Mediterranean islands of Sicily and Sardinia, encompassing mountains, lakes, fertile plains, vineyards, long coastlines, and historic cities. Its cultural landscape has been shaped by ancient Roman, Etruscan, Greek, Christian, Byzantine, Arab, and medieval traditions, with strong regional identities that remain visible in language, cuisine, architecture, and customs.

Region: Europe

Literary Context

Italy has played a foundational role in European literature. The Italian literary tradition emerged strongly in the Middle Ages, with Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy becoming one of the defining works of Western literature. Petrarch and Boccaccio further established the importance of Italian vernacular writing, while the Renaissance produced figures such as Machiavelli, Ariosto, and Tasso. Modern Italian literature has explored social class, regional identity, politics, war, memory, and the changing nature of Italian society. Major writers include Alessandro Manzoni, Luigi Pirandello, Italo Svevo, Italo Calvino, Primo Levi, Natalia Ginzburg, Elsa Morante, and Elena Ferrante. Italy’s literary landscape is particularly notable for the tension between local identities and a broader sense of national culture, as well as the influence of migration and Italy’s complex relationship with its past.