It is Nikos Economopoulos's drama, an excellent b/w scene performed by people from Balkan Peninsula, about their daily life, street, religion, at work, strike, etc.

Within the Balkan Peninsula, the borderline between countries is so blurred, where the mindset of people may be still not separable from their history. We can see uncountable traces of their history, where their struggle continues today.

In the beginning, I was attracted by the cover image, like a monster with children. The strong visuals are so dramatic, across the contenients of countries with no border.

For many Sicilian-Americans the connections with the time before emigration have been long lost or forgotten. Yet Sicily haunts many families with its traditions, food and oral history. The roots of these traditions remain unknown or at best cloudy for most Sicilian-Americans.
Frank Viviano's book "Blood Washes Blood: A True Story of Love, Murder, and Redemption Under the Sicilian Sun" paints a picture of the unknown Sicily in vivid detail.
Terrasini, the fishing village west of Palermo near Punta Raisi, is the setting for the beginning of a quest that winds its way through New York, St Louis, Boston and Detroit. It's a path that tens of thousands of immigrants took, leaving family members and their stories along the way.
While somewhat autobiographical, Viviano spins this tale of his journey of discovery regarding the mysterious murder of his great-grand father Francesco Paolo (the Monk) Viviano in nineteenth century Sicily. Viviano studies Sicily during his visits in the mid 1990's. At the same time he is researching his family another passion play is being played out with the sensational mid-1990's trial of Sicilian mafia don Toto Riina for the murder of Italian magistrate Giovanni Falcone, his wife and fellow magistrate Paolo Borsellino. Viviano weaves his modern quest with Sicily's historic past.
Viviano briefly touches on his work as a wire service reporter dashing from war in Bosnia to the struggle of the Kurds along the Turkish and Iraqi frontier. He notes the worldwide struggle of the under dog against the oppressor, like Sicily and it's millennia of wars against invaders. Sicilians as a people struggle for an identity; just as author Viviano struggles for his identity as a Sicilian through the long forgotten truth that permeates his family.

Frank Viviano is a 40-ish foreign correspondent who lives his life in hotel rooms, sublets & war zones. Much to his surprise, he discovers he is not the first in his family to be afflicted with rootlessness; his grandfather tells Frank before he dies of a great-great grandfather, The Monk. "He was always alone. He never stay in one place. You too much like he was, Franky". Then the grandfather goes on to say "The boss tell his men to kill him. The boss, Domenico Valenti." These words simmer in Frank Viviano's consciousness for years until he finally goes to Sicily to discover the story behind them.

But "Blood Washes Blood" is much more than a personal family history. The reader is taken on a tour of Sicily, both it's history & it's present. For the average American, raised on the Godfather movies & the Sopranos, this tour is a revelation. For example, we are told that half of all Sicilian villages were not even accessible by road 100 years ago. According to an Italian government study in 1910, many Sicilians had never even seen a wheeled cart! It is into this self-contained universe, this amalgam of 1000 years of invasions that Viviano leads us.

Viviano's writing is precise & unadorned, as befits a news reporter, but it is never lacking in descriptive power. He can pull the reader right into a scene, allowing us to picture the characters & surroundings vividly. This is lucky, for although a few pictures are included, there are not nearly enough.

If you have been watching "The Sopranos", "Blood Washes Blood" will flesh out many of the relationships & background characters. If you've read Frances Mayes "Under the Tuscan Sun", this book will show you the flip-side of Sicily that tourists seldom see. Either way, you'll definitely enjoy it!

The remarkable aspect of this book is that in his search for details of his great-great-grandfather's life and death, Frank Viviano goes beneath the surface of officially recorded facts to follow the trail of family secrets. Anyone who has searched for information about their Sicilian background knows that much is untold. Parents and grandparents carry their secrets to the grave. In order to discover the truth, it is necessary to read between the lines. Patience and a knowledge of Sicilian history and culture is essential. Frank Viviano has carefully gathered a wealth of background material that is revealing and useful for the reader who is trying to pursue a similar inquiry into family history.

This is fine non-fiction writing. The story unfolds with a certain drama, using the craft of writing to keep us reading well past bedtime! Perhaps the only weakness, in my opinion, is that more is revealed than need be about the author's own personal torments. Any information about an old girlfriend, for example, is irrelevant to the story. This is a minor flaw however. This book is superior to anything I have read about Sicily or searching for Italian roots.