The Sicilian Inheritance

Content Warning: The source material and this guide contain descriptions of violence toward women and an instance of death by suicide.

It is 2016, and the unnamed narrator is injured and covered with blood. The police detective asks them if they killed the man on the mountain. Despite worrying about their family and the consequences of confessing, they say yes. 

Sara’s dream of owning her restaurant, La Macellaia, came true, but she declared bankruptcy and closed her doors. Sara’s estranged husband arrives with their daughter, Sophie, so Sara can take her to her Aunt Rosie’s memorial. Jack doesn’t think it’s appropriate for a young child. Jack gives Sara a letter that Aunt Rosie sent her just before she died. Sara feels guilty because she didn’t visit Rosie before her death.

The party-like memorial is held at the bar Rosie frequented. Everyone from Sara’s large Sicilian family attends. The guests’ stories remind Sara how important Rosie is to their family. Sara is named after her relative, Serafina, who stayed in Sicily while her husband, Giovanni, emigrated to the US. Rosie became a high school principal, and though she never married or had children of her own, she was a mother figure to the children in the family.