Novel Tease

I'm not sure what I like most - Camilleri's stories, Stephen Sartarelli's translations, or Sicily, but it's always a joy to pick up a new Inspector Montalbano story. In fact, I know I'd hate to actually live in Sicily - it's far too hot for me - but Camilleri makes you want to be there anyway.

The Montalbano books always make me wish I could read Italian - not because I distrust the translation, but because I love it! When Montalbano's assistant, Catarelli, uses recognizable but mangled English idiom in Sartarelli's translation, I want to know what was said in Sicilian and the whole thought process that went into choosing an appropriate misuse of English. It would be far easier, I'm sure, to provide either a literal translation, or grammatically correct English, but Catarelli is supposed to be barely intelligible in his own language.