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![]() First edition | |
Author | Leonardo Sciascia |
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Original title | Il giorno della civetta |
Translator | Archibald Colquhoun and Arthur Oliver |
Language | Italian with someSicilian |
Publication date | 1961 |
Publication place | Italy |
Published in English | 1963 |
Media type | |
Pages | 136 pp (English edition, softcover) |
ISBN | 1-59017-061-X |
Preceded by | Sicilian Uncles |
Followed by | The Council of Egypt |
The Day of the Owl (Italian:Il giorno della civetta[ilˈdʒornodellatʃiˈvetta]) is acrime novel about theSicilian Mafia byLeonardo Sciascia, finished in 1960 and published in 1961.
As the author wrote in his preface of the 1972 Italian edition, the novel was written at a time in which the existence of the Mafia itself was debated and often denied. Its publishing led to widespreaddebate and to renewed awareness of the phenomenon.
The novel is inspired by the assassination ofAccursio Miraglia, acommunist trade unionist, atSciacca in January 1947.Damiano Damiani directed amovie adaptation in 1968.
Sciascia used this story as refutation against the Mafia and the corruption, apparent to his eyes, that led all the way toRome.
In a smallSicilian town, early on a Saturday morning, abus is about to leave the smallpiazza to head to the marketplace in the next town nearby. A gunshot is heard and the figure running for the bus is shot twice in the back, with what is discovered as alupara (a sawn-off rifle thatSicilian Mafia clans use for their killings). The passengers and bus driver deny having seen the murderer.
ACarabinieri captain and formerCivil Warpartisan fromParma, Bellodi, gets on the case, ruffling feathers in his contemporaries and colleagues alike. Soon he discovers a link that does not stop in Sicily, but goes onwards towardsRome and Minister Mancuso and Senator Livigni, to whom, he discovers, most suspects (including the local bossdon Mariano Arena) are linked.
It seems that the man shot, Salvatore Colasberna, was the owner of a small construction company. He had been warned that he should pay thepizzo and take "protection" from mafiosi, but he refused. Although his company was only a very small one, the local Mafia decides to make an example of him and has him killed.
Bellodi obtains the killer's (Diego "Zecchinetta" Marchica) confession by pretending to have the confession of the man (Rosario Pizzuco) who hired him. Moreover Bellodi uses the names given by an informer (Calogero Dibella, known as "Parrinieddu"), who was killed in retaliation, to arrest the local mafia boss don Mariano Arena, who has money stashed away in many bank accounts that add up to more than his fallow fields would ever bring. He is attempting to take down an organization with many members involved in the police and government, and whose mere existence many Sicilians deny. He deliberately ignores thecrime passionnel lead, which is often a handy excuse for Mafia killings.
During a sick leave of Bellodi in his hometown of Parma, the case against all three collapses because of false testimony, which gives an alibi to Marchica. The death of Paolo Nicolosi, a witness to the presence of the killer near the crime scene, is attributed to his wife's affair. The novel ends with Bellodi recounting his time in Sicily to his friends in Parma—who think that it all sounds very romantic—and thinking that he would return to Sicily even if it killed him.
TheEnglish-language translation ofThe Day of the Owl is available in paperback underISBN 1-59017-061-X (New York:NYRB Classics, 2003).
The novel was adapted intothe film of the same name in 1968 byDamiano Damiani, starringFranco Nero as Captain Bellodi andClaudia Cardinale as Rosa Nicolosi. The film does take some liberties when compared to the novel, but overall maintains the same message.