The Day of the Owl
The Day of the Owl ( ) is a crime novel about the Sicilian Mafia by Leonardo Sciascia, finished in 1960 and published in 1961. As the author wrote in his preface of the 1972 Italian edition, the novel was written at a time in which the existence of the Mafia itself was debated and often denied. Its publishing led to widespread debate and to renewed awareness of the phenomenon. The novel is inspired by the assassination of Accursio Miraglia, a communist trade unionist, at Sciacca in January 1947. Damiano Damiani directed a movie adaptation in 1968. Sciascia used this story as refutation against the Mafia and the corruption, apparent to his eyes, that led all the way to Rome. Plot In a small Sicilian town, early on a Saturday morning, a bus is about to leave the small to head to the marketplace in the next town nearby. A gunshot is heard and the figure running for the bus is shot twice in the back, with what is discovered as a (a sawn-off rifle that Sicilian Mafia clans use for their killings). The passengers and bus driver deny having seen the murderer. A Carabinieri captain and former Civil War