Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (1896-1957) was the last Prince of Lampedusa, a small Italian island between Tunisia, Malta and Sicily (from which it is administrated). Giuseppe gained posthumous fame for his single novel, The Leopard (Il Gattopardo), which has since become the bestselling novel in Italian history. When the family's palace in Palermo was destroyed by Allied bombers in World War II, Giuseppe sank into a depression from which The Leopard was born. It takes place in Sicily during the Risorgimento, the unification of Italy in the 19th century, in which his real great-grandfather participated.
Don Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina, is allied with the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies against Giuseppe Garibaldi and the House of Savoy (the ultimate victors). Don Fabrizio, head of an aristocratic and traditional family, understands that his people are against him, and that keeping any semblance of the old order requires accepting the new. In the novel's most famous line, Don Fabrizio's nephew sums this up: "For everything to stay the same, everything must change." Sixty years on from its publication, the historical fiction of The Leopard strikes true as ever. It was last published by Pantheon in 2007 ($16, 9780375714795). --Tobias Mutter
