Camilleri's stories: they call it dialect, but it's above all the language of the heart.

Storytelling. To captivate, to narrate, to fill the eyes and hearts of readers, and to give them a world to live in, a place where they can return and feel at home. This is what Andrea Camilleri masterfully did, and this is what he achieved in all his works, from the Montalbano novels to historical novels, including short stories and plays. Six years after his death , the great Agrigento-born writer continues to captivate readers with his more than lifelike characters, his witty and ironic voice, and his savory and musical dialect.

Yes: the maestro's dialect is, first and foremost, a language of the heart and affection. It is the familiar dialect linked to his youth, the one he had preserved in his memory, jealously guarded, and which came in handy when he decided to try his hand at writing a narrative text. He explains it himself in the preface to Il corso delle cose : the purity of Italian vanished before the strength of Sicilian, its rounded sonority, its ability to express a concept in a single word that in Italian would have required long periphrases. With all due respect to his detractors, Camilleri's Sicilian is a literary language , forged for storytelling and for describing the dynamics, power relations, and small miracles of a small village overlooking the Strait of Sicily, where past and present intersect: Le storie di Vigàta , precisely, which includes the six short stories that Repubblica will publish weekly starting tomorrow.

Six stories that narrate glimpses of the lives of deeply human characters, forced to confront a fate that is at times mocking, merciless, or indulgent. The maestro has given body and voice to the tales of his childhood. He has restored strength, value, and breadth. He has made them real. Moreover, precisely because he is free from the shackles of the novel, Camilleri was able and willing to experiment and blend literary genres and influences. These short stories echo the verism of Verga , the fable-like narrative of Capuana, the psychological study of Pirandello, blending with magical realism and farce, or even the picaresque element intertwined with drama. They are precious stories, in which one breathes the joy of writing lightly and losing oneself in the process, representing a true hymn to literary freedom and testifying, once again, to the greatness of this wonderful author.