Syracuse; Sicily’s City of Stories appealed to me because of my interest in Italy and my travels to Sicily, a beautiful city which I visited all too briefly. It also has a beautiful cover and is a wonderful gem of a book, concise but packed with information. It will transport you to Sicily past and present. It is written by poet, translator, and cultural critic Joachim Santorious. His observations are fascinating throughout, with a poet’s eye for detail and beauty, it is of course wonderfully descriptive. We get to know his reason for moving to Syracuse, his neighbours, his neighbourhood but also about all the cultures and history that make up Sicily, so we learn of the Greek and Arabic history, of Sicily’s place in the modern Italy. Of course, as well as all the splendour, there is also the poverty and the mafia to contend with. It is well balanced and erudite and makes me want to revisit Syracuse but this time armed with this book to further explore. I like the format of the book, which is laid out in chapters with corresponding small diary like entries which are numbered. In that sense, you can dip in and out of it. It is a book to be savoured, it will give you a lot to think about and to imagine. A really beautiful book.