IL RE DI GIRGENTI / THE KING OF GIRGENTI

Set in the first 15 years of the 18th century, Camilleri’s novel is inspired by an episode in Sicilian history. These were the years when Sicily was with the Savoy, revolts and revolutions were taking place. For six days Girgenti became an independent kingdom with a peasant who proclaimed himself king. His name was Michele Zosimo, and in the days of the insurrection he apparently drank wine mixed with gunpowder. King for only six days, once the revolt was quelled, he was killed.

«Great and portentous events occur in Sicily at the close of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. “The King of Girgenti” is the great Camilleri novel we have all been waiting for».
Salvatore Silvano Nigro