Lampedusa by Steven Price

Lampedusa by Steven Price

Like Colm Tóibín's The Master or Michael Cunningham's The Hours, a novel about art and writing in the life of one of the greats

Set in a sun-drenched Sicily, among the decadent Italian aristocracy of the late 1950s, Steven Price's Lampedusa explores the final years of Giuseppe Tomasi, the last prince of Lampedusa, as he struggles to complete his only novel, The Leopard.

In 1955, Tomasi was diagnosed with advanced emphysema; shortly after, he began work on a novel that would fail to be published before his death four years later. When The Leopard at last appeared, it won Italy's Strega Prize and became the greatest Italian novel of the century.

Adhering intensely to the facts of Tomasi's life but moving deep into the mind of the author, Lampedusa inhabits the complicated interior of a man facing down the end of his life and struggling to make something of lasting worth while there is still time.

Steven Price grew up in Colwood, British Columbia. ANATOMY OF KEYS (Brick Books, 2006), his debut collection of poetry, won the Gerald Lampert Prize and was designated a Globe & Mail Book of the Year. His work has been published in literary journals in both Canada and the United States. Breathing Fire 2: Canada's New Poets, edited by Lorna Crozier and Patrick Lane, features him as one of the poets. Price holds a master's degree in creative writing from the University of Virginia and currently teaches poetry and writing at the University of Victoria.