The Fire in the Mountain (A History of Sicily, Mount Etna, and the Island's Volcanic Legacy)

From the acclaimed author of The Land Where Lemons Grow, comes a luminous account of Sicilian history, geography, culture, and cuisine, as seen from the slopes of Mount Etna.

For centuries, Mount Etna has sent lava to engulf the towns and villages, terraced fields, orchards, vineyards, and citrus groves that nestle across its slopes. But still it remains home to a quarter of Sicily’s population. Why? Because Etna has always rewarded her people after every eruption with a landscape of unparalleled fertility, richness, and drama.

In this extraordinary new book, Helena Attlee combines travel writing with history, mythology, geology, gastronomy, and horticulture to tell a unique story of life in the shadow of Sicily’s most dangerous and alluring landmark. Venturing through lava-strewn fields and pistachio groves patrolled by armed guards; past dusky, basalt-built farmyards, and caves once used to store snow, Attlee gathers tales of the artists, writers, farmers, and scientists who have for centuries been drawn to this unpredictable landscape: from the early Roman, Arabic and Norman settlers, Romantic poets and Victorian geologists, to the local families who live and work there today. The Fire in the Mountain is at once a compelling account of Sicily’s rich and varied past, and a powerful meditation on humanity’s ever-changing relationship with landscape.