The novel is set in Sicily in the 1920s. Casimiro Badalamenti, the protagonist, is a very ruthless young man concerned only with money and fame, to which he subordinates everything: his children’s mother, his own children separated from him immediately after birth, etc. Because of the mafia, he leaves his home in Giardinello and the surrounding vineyards and settles elsewhere, where he seeks to satisfy his sexual desires. He manages to make a fortune thanks to his businesses and his dark influences, which he wants to pass on to his children.
Concetta, his wife, accompanies him on his journey, witnessing and suffering his brutality. The children, isolated, illiterate, and without friends, are led by their adolescent feelings and instincts.
It is a novel of disturbing realism in which brutality is very present, and Casimiro’s will seems unreflective and does not admit contradiction. By contrast, there are people with ideals who guide their children well and love them. This, together with the descriptions of the landscapes, forms the most beautiful part of the narrative. Although there is only one explicit sexual description, the narration is permeated with sensuality. At times, religiosity is presented as hypocritical.
Livia De Stefani (1913–1991) was an Italian writer from Sicily. She was a successful author who wrote about her native Sicily and denounced the extortion practices of the mafia. The Vineyard of Black Grapes was her first novel.