L'alba dei Leoni

Before the empire, before the legend: the prequel to the bestselling saga The Lions of Sicily.

Based on the true story of the Florios, Sicily’s history-making titans, this sweeping novel traces their roots and reveals the struggles and ambitions that would one day build an empire – and shape history.

Calabria (South Italy), end of the eighteenth century. Vincenzo Florio lives by the sea: with his wife Rosa and their children, he is free to gaze beyond the horizon, towards Sicily, yet nothing could ever pull them away from their home. In Bagnara, a strip of land crowned by mountains but shaped by the sea’s power, Vincenzo works with iron, has a respectable family, and is proud of his name and the hard work that built it. It seems the Florios’ story could repeat itself, generation after generation. But the rebellious, dreamy nature of his son Paolo, who discovers the allure of freedom, opens the door to a new idea, a new obsession. Then, suddenly, the harsh, unforgiving land trembles, and in an instant, an earthquake destroys homes and claims lives.

From the ruins, a new dream is born for the Florios: a dream that crosses the strait between Calabria and Sicily, carrying Paolo and Ignazio Florio to Palermo, leaving behind their strict father and a world frozen in time. They depart from the despair of those who have lost everything, uncertain of what the future holds, yet fully aware of who they have been – a consciousness that will shape the history of the Florio family from beginning to end.

And this is the beginning.