Defiance

Description

In 1960s Sicily, the Mafia were everywhere – and never seen. In the small town of Cinisi their power was unspoken, and absolute: ‘it’s in the air that you breathe’ as the locals used to say. One man however, dared to speak out. Like many Sicilians, Peppino Impastato was born in to a family with strong Mafia affiliations. When he decided to oppose the Mafia, his father, a close friend of the local ‘capo’, threw him out of the house. In this compelling book, based on exclusive interviews with the protaganists, Tom Behan takes us inside the town Peppino dubbed ‘Mafiopoli’, and tells a story the rest of the world has never heard before: a tale of courage and resistance in the very heartland of Mafia power. Peppino launched a radio show which savagely pilloried the Mafia and their allies. It set the town ablaze. A subversive grassroots movement developed, eager to take on the forces of corruption and privilege. Peppino stood for election to the Cinisi Council. What happened to him is the gripping story of this book. Tom Behan, who died in August 2010 aged 53, was an expert on Italian organised crime. He was a lecturer in Italian at the University of Kent at Canterbury, and wrote numerous books, including ‘See Naples and Die: The Camorra and Organised Crime’ (I.B.Tauris).

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