Salvo Montalbano


Inspector Salvo Montalbano is a fictional detective created by Italian writer Andrea Camilleri in a series of novels and short stories. The books were written in a mixture of Italian, strict Sicilian, and Sicilianized Italian.

Overview

The detective's character encapsulates astute detective work and a fractious manner. Inspector Montalbano is an engaging hero – honest, decent and loyal. He has his own way of doing things, and his superiors regard him as something of a loose cannon. One of the strengths of the novels is Montalbano's ability to navigate through a murky world, a world of shady connections and favours owed and owing, without compromising himself beyond what he can live with. There is a great deal of humour in his character, such as his unconditional love for silence while enjoying a good meal, but the primary subtext is hard criticism of the social and political situation of both the Sicilian and Italian contexts. In fact, Camilleri has said that social commentary "...was always my aim. In many crime novels, the events seem completely detached from the economic, political and social context in which they occur. In my books, I deliberately decided to smuggle into a detective novel a critical commentary on my times. This also allowed me to show the progression and evolution in the character of Montalbano."
He is the Commissioner of the police precinct of the fictional town of Vigata. In this role he is balancing between the demands of his superiors and the realities of local crime and life in general; in fact, a determining factor of his success as a Sicilian policeman seems to be his ability to bridge between different cultures. There is the "northern" force, coming from Rome, Milan that attempts to standardize regulations and increase transparency. On the opposite side is the particularistic "southern" culture with complex webs of relationships that affect the way things are done. Montalbano excels at balancing between these two, while being true to his principles.
Although the Inspector Montalbano series of novels is staged in the Sicilian context, Camilleri uncompromisingly confronts many contemporary political and social problems. The novels were translated into English by Stephen Sartarelli. The translation of the Montalbano novels started only after five novels had already been published in Italian and gained popularity among the Italian-speaking public. Sartarelli has attempted to maintain the mixture of Italian and Sicilian language in the dialogues. In addition, he has added notes at the end of each of the novels, which give short explanations regarding many of the peculiarities of Sicilian and Italian society depicted in the novels.
The name Montalbano is a homage to the Spanish writer Manuel Vázquez Montalbán; the similarities between Montalbán's Pepe Carvalho and Camilleri's fictional detective are remarkable. Both writers make great play of their protagonists' gastronomic preferences.

Date of Birth

According to the novel "A Voice in the Night", chapter one, Salvo was born on 6 September 1950.

Location

Inspector Montalbano lives and works in the fictional town of "Vigata", in the similarly fictional province of "Montelusa". Camilleri based Vigata on his home town of Porto Empedocle, on Sicily's south-west coast, while Montelusa, the province headquarters, is based on Agrigento.
In 2009, a statue of the inspector was placed in the centrally located Via Roma, in Porto Empedocle, commissioned by the mayor at the time to Italian artist . It does not resemble the Montalbano we see on TV at all, picturing him with his hand on a lamppost, wrinkles and a full head of hair, just as described in Camilleri's books.

TV series

Since 1999, RAI has been producing a television series based on the novels, called in Italian, Il commissario Montalbano. Montalbano is played by Luca Zingaretti. The series is shot almost entirely in the Sicilian city of Ragusa and surrounding towns. The seaside and harbour locations were at Punta Secca and Licata.
The series has been airing, with English subtitles, on the MHz Worldview television network under the "MHz Networks International Mysteries" banner for several years.
In 2012 Rai 1 broadcast a prequel series Il giovane Montalbano , starring Michele Riondino as Montalbano.

Reception

Camilleri's writings have enjoyed, and still enjoy, considerable popular success in Italy and abroad. Montalbano personifies Camilleri's writing style and is therefore at the core of this success, so much so that the evident resemblance between Porto Empedocle and Vigàta prompted the city of Porto Empedocle to rename itself "Porto Empedocle Vigàta" in 2003, although the decision was reversed in 2009.
The series has been translated into many languages. The first volume was translated into English in 2002 by Stephen Sartarelli.

Novels

  1. The Shape of Water — 2002
  2. The Terracotta Dog — 2002
  3. The Snack Thief — 2003
  4. The Voice of the Violin — 2003
  5. Excursion to Tindari — 2005
  6. The Scent of the Night — 2005
  7. Rounding the Mark — 2006
  8. The Patience of the Spider — 2007
  9. The Paper Moon — 2008
  10. August Heat — 2009
  11. The Wings of the Sphinx — 2009
  12. The Track of Sand — 2010
  13. The Potters Field — 2011
  14. The Age of Doubt — 2012
  15. The Dance Of The Seagull — 2013
  16. The Treasure Hunt — 2013
  17. Angelica's Smile — 2014
  18. Game of Mirrors — 2015
  19. A Beam of Light — 2015
  20. A Voice in the Night — 2016
  21. A Nest of Vipers — 2017
  22. The Pyramid of Mud — 2018
  23. The Overnight Kidnapper — 2019
  24. The Other End of the Line — 2019
  25. The Safety Net — 2020
  26. The Sicilian Method — 2020

  28. Collections of short stories