The Sicilian Inheritance

The Sicilian Inheritance (2024) is a historical fiction novel by Jo Piazza. Piazza is a renowned journalist, editor, and novelist known for her humor, engaging storytelling, and exploration of current topics. The Sicilian Inheritance tells, through dual timelines, the story of two women, Sara and Serafina, separated by a century who both defy the prescribed path for their lives. Piazza’s inspiration for The Sicilian Inheritance came from the real-life story of the murder of her great-grandmother, Lorenza Marsala, which has been passed down through her family for 100 years. At the time, Piazza knew little about Lorenza’s story and wrote the novel as pure fiction. With a background in prominent publications such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, Piazza brings a journalistic eye to her fiction, infusing it with authenticity and detail. She is also the best-selling author of The Knockoff, How to Be Married, and Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win. After The Sicilian Inheritance was published, Piazza created a true crime podcast—a companion to the book investigating the murder. She spent a year researching, traveling to Sicily, and searching archives, discovering that Lorenza and Serafina had much in common.

This guide uses the 2024 Penguin Random House e-book edition.

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

Plot Summary

In early-1900s Sicily, 15-year-old Serafina dreams of attending upper school and becoming something different than a wife and mother. Serafina becomes pregnant after sleeping with a local boy called Gio. Duty bound to her family and culture, Serafina gives up her educational dreams and marries Gio. Serafina’s childhood best friend Cettina marries Liuni, Gio’s friend, and the two young women plan to raise their families together. Everything changes when many village men, including Gio, leave Sicily for the US. Left alone to raise her three sons, Serafina treasures her independence and soon begins apprenticing under Rosalia, a supposed witch, to become a healer. Cettina and Liuni can’t have children, and when the Mafia murders Liuni, Cettina marries Liuni’s brother Marco—a relationship spurred by societal norms, not a love match.

Marco becomes the village mayor, but the women now run everything. Cettina and Marco aren’t intimate, and soon, he and Serafina fall in love and begin an affair. Marco gives Serafina land for a clinic for her practice. The clinic is a success, and Serafina helps save many villagers’ lives when a deadly flu breaks out. However, some people call her a witch, just like Rosalia, and Serafina fears for her life. Marco becomes ill and must go to Palermo for treatment. Meanwhile, Gio returns and informs Serafina she must sell the land and move to the US with the children. Marco survives, and Serafina becomes pregnant with his child. Someone burns down the clinic, and Serafina goes into early labor. Cettina helps Serafina ensure that her children—including the newborn, Rosalia—make it safely to the US. They fake Serafina’s murder. Serafina secretly moves to the US, where she trains as a nurse and graduates from college. Gio raises their children, and when Rosalia comes of age, Serafina’s friend, a local sculptor, delivers her the deed to the land in Sicily. Rosalia doesn’t investigate the land for decades, just before her death.

In the present day, Sara Marsala is forced to close her restaurant. Her marriage is ending, and her husband is trying to take custody of her daughter, Sophie. Sara’s beloved Aunt Rosie, later revealed to be Rosalia, the daughter of Serafina and Marco, dies and leaves her a note to scatter her ashes in Sicily. She also leaves the deed to a piece of land and asks Sara to investigate the mystery surrounding her relative Serafina’s death. When Sara arrives in the village of Caltabellessa, Sicily, she learns that Serafina is remembered as a witch and an unfaithful wife who was murdered. Rosie raised Sara to believe that Serafina was a saintly woman who remained in Sicily to raise her children after most men left Sicily to work in the US.

With the help of several locals, including the hotel owner Giusy, Sara begins unearthing her family’s secrets in hopes of reclaiming the land now occupied by a Mafia drug cartel. As Sara’s intentions become known, the Mafia make it clear they don’t want her there. After discovering Serafina’s journal, Sara learns of the fortitude she and her fellow village women possessed. Immersing herself in Sicilian culture, including eating delectable food and enjoying a brief romantic fling with a local chef named Luca, Sara begins to connect with her heritage.

Giusy’s cousin Nino attacks and kidnaps Sara and takes her to the same cliff where Serafina was reportedly murdered. Giusy arrives and tosses Sara a knife, and she kills Nino and escapes. Giusy reveals that she conspired with Nino to kidnap Sara but never intended to harm her: She only wanted to collect on the land and secure her and her daughter’s future. Sara learns from an artist that Serafina wasn’t murdered and instead escaped to the US and became a nurse. Marco and Serafina’s baby girl Rosalia became her Aunt Rosie. The artist memorialized Serafina’s legacy in the village by sculpting her for the fountain. Sara scatters half of Rosie’s ashes in the fountain and half on the cliff. She plans to sell the land to wealthy foreign investors, return home, and begin her life again by reopening her restaurant and taking care of her daughter.