Leonardo Sciascia (1921-1989) was born in Racamulto, Sicily. Starting in the 1950s, he established himself in Italy as a novelist and essayist, and also as a controversial commentator on political affairs. Among his many other books are Salt on the Wound, a biography of a Sicilian town, The Council of Egypt, an historical novel, and Todo Modo, a book in a genre that Sciascia could be said to have invented: the metaphysical mystery. Carlin Romano is a critic at large for The Chronicle of Higher Education, and a former president of the National Book Critics Circle. He is also the author of America the Philosophical, and divides his time between teaching at Ursinus College and the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication.