Excellent Cadavers: Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic - Couverture rigide

Stille, Alexander

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0224037617 ISBN 13 : 9780224037617

Editeur : Jonathan Cape, 1995

Synopsis

"Excellent Cadavers" - a term used in Sicily to distinguish the assassination of prominent government officials from the hundreds of common criminals killed in the course of routine mafia business - tells of the remarkable investigation spearheaded by Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, the two Sicilian prosecutors who in the 1980s took the war against the Mafia further than anyone had ever dared. They succeeded in penetrating the Mafia's code of silence and revealed for the first time the structure and extent of the Mafia's powers. But dramatic as Falcone's and Borsellino's success was, it was followed by the Italian government's even more dramatic effort to unravel what they had achieved and to impede further investigation. In 1992, aware that the two magistrates were without the complete support of the Italian government, the Mafia assassinated them. In death they were hailed as national heroes; massive public outcry demanded their investigations be completed. The outcome - the toppling of crucial alliances that had forged political rule in Italy since World War II and the criminal indictment of Italy's most prominent leaders.

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

In 1992 Italy was convulsed by two brazen Mafia assassinations of high-ranking officials. The latest "excellent cadavers" were Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, the Sicilian magistrates who had been the Cosa Nostra's most implacable enemies. Yet in the aftermath of the murders, hundreds of "men of honor" were arrested and the government that ad protected them for nearly half a century was at last driven from office. This is the story that Stille tells with such insight and immediacy in Excellent Cadavers. Combining a profound understanding of his doomed heroes with and unprecedented look into the Mafia's stringent codes and murderous rivalries, he gives us a book that has the power of a great work of history and the suspense of a true thriller.

"Riveting...a well-paced and highly informative account stocked with well-drawn characters."--Philadelphia Inquirer

"Masterful...[Stille] delivers a stiletto-sharp portrait of the bloodthirsty Sicilian mafia."--Business Week

Biographie de l'auteur

Alexander Stille is the author of The Future of the Past, Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic, and Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families Under Fascism, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine, and other publications.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Jonathan Cape
• Date d'édition: 1995
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0224037617
• ISBN 13: 9780224037617
• Reliure: Relié
• Numéro d'édition: 1
• Nombre de pages: 480
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible