Simonetta Agnello Hornby, too much ambition in the family in “He was a good boy”

Lin Sicily, women, justice: there are all the themes dear to the narrative of Simonetta Agnello Hornby in his latest book He was a good boy (Mondadori). And this even if the protagonists are two boys, Giovanni and Santino, initially two “good boys”who, however, find themselves having to be carried in a vortex of ambitions driven above all by the search for glory and comfort of their respective mothers and the alleged failures of their fathers.

Sicily by Simonetta Agnello Hornby

In this way, in a geography that moves between imaginary places, between Sciacca and Palermo, in the current period from the years of the economic boom and Sicilian overbuilding to the 90slet’s get into a intricate landscape of mafia and “men of honor”, in which dreams lose their innocence. All told with the wisdom that the Sicilian, naturalized English author, and judge of many cases in the United Kingdom, has accustomed us to.

The epigraph of the book contains words by Elio Vittorini and Libero Grassi, the entrepreneur who refused to pay protection money to the mafia. Can you let us enter your new novel through this door?
Vittorini understood Sicily like few others, and Libero Grassi is a heroic example in that suffering land, and even more so in Palermo, my city. There is still a lack of sense of collective good, and everyone defends their own interest, without realizing that, in the long run, it is not an advantage for anyone. In extended form, this creates a system that turns all justice on its head.

The two “good guys” protagonists of the story, in fact, from the first page have big dreams and unbridled personal ambition. Is that what will lead them astray?
In Sicily, innocence is quickly lost, because there is always “smartness”, sometimes even to survive. At the market you can find the boy at the fruit stand, who works to help his father, but who soon learns to hide the rotten fruit behind the good one. Sicily, which I have always loved, is not an easy experience, even if I have lived mostly abroad. So Santino and Giovanni grow up with this drive to succeed at all costs, where succeeding means having access to wealth.

Does he then introduce us to Giovanni and Santino?
They are two different boys, both in some way raised only by their mother. Giovanni because he was an orphan, due to the somewhat mysterious disappearance of his father; Santino because he has a father who was marginalized by his wife and professional failure. Both are desperate to fit into the world, one will become a lawyer, the other will reign in the construction business. Behind them there are two influential mothers, respectively Concetta, who wants Giovanni happy and who is accompanied by men of representation; Assumption of her that she is an intrepid and passionate woman, that she wants her son to save her and give her well-being. I love Sicilian mothers, but these mothers in no way give their children the opportunity to move away from the model they have in mind for them. Eventually they get into trouble.

We start from the years of the economic boom: what did it represent in Sicily?
It was a time of impressive building growth, the mafia was naturally involved. Sicily was all a construction site and especially this area of ​​Sicily, down to Syracuse, because there was tourism, Sciacca had a port that was becoming more and more important, and everyone looked to the future with hope and greed.

So was entering this mix of evil and good almost necessary?
Yes, if one wanted to stay in Sicily he had to relate to this world, it was very difficult to stay out of it. Some managed to live differently, there have always been many honest people in Sicily, but they survived with more difficulty.

In his book there are some figures who carry these different values, such as Anna, the woman who Giovanni did not have the strength to stay close to.
Anna is an eccentric figure in the book, strong and against the trend. And there were figures like that too. But what matters to me is that Giovanni and Santino were not corrupt, they were really born as good guys. So were many of those who ended up in prison. There is a core of honesty in them. Anna carries on a feeling for Giovanni, even when he marries again, and she tries to save him.

The story reaches up to the 90s. What remains of this reality in the present?
I asked myself that too, and I would say that it is always complicated to do interesting things in Sicily, without coming into contact with people who are better off not knowing.

She was a woman of law, with a brilliant career in the United Kingdom. Do you still believe in justice and what is it for you?
It’s treating everyone the same, without shortcuts and privileges. Without groups that want to prevail. For me it is the most important thing, because it is the basis of a happy nation.

A cause he didn’t win?
My law firm in London was the first in the whole of England to open a special department against domestic violence against women. Well, maybe I would like to live in a world where men and women feel equal and don’t need to think about their gender, but that’s not the case yet.

iO Donna © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED