Equal Danger

By Leonardo Sciascia
Translated from the Italian by Adrienne Foulke
Introduction by Carlin Romano

District Attorney Varga is shot dead. Then Judge Sanza is killed. Then Judge Azar. Are these random murders, or part of a conspiracy? Inspector Rogas thinks he might know, but as soon as he makes progress he is transferred and encouraged to pin the crimes on the Left. And yet how committed are the cynical, fashionable, comfortable revolutionaries to revolution—or anything? Who is doing what to whom?

Equal Danger is set in an imaginary country, one that seems all too real. It is the most extreme—and gripping—depiction of the politics of paranoia by Leonardo Sciascia, master of the metaphysical detective novel.

Read the introduction (PDF)

Reviews

Sciascia's novels manage to combine brooding philosophical and historical meditations, and the kind of intellectual detective work that doesn't solve crimes so much as open them up into larger crimes that redefine paranoia itself.
— Michael Covino, The East Bay Express

The accessibility and beauty of Sciascia's prose suggest he wanted it to be an antidote to the silent complicity and self-deception confronting both him and his heroes. When he wrote about crime, he was also writing about truth, solitude and belonging.
— The Observer

Among Sicilian writers Leonardo Sciascia is supreme. His books are both lucid and mysterious; they address complex, public subjects with clarity and elegance; they move with the pace of thrillers, and have the resonance of poetry.
— Philip Hensher, The Spectator

Also see:

To Each His Own By Leonardo Sciascia Translated from the Italian by Adrienne Foulke Introduction by W.S. Di Piero To Each His Own is one of the masterworks of the great Sicilian novelist Leonardo Sciascia—a gripping and unconventional detective story that is also an anatomy of a society founded on secrets, lies, collusion, and violence.

The Wine-Dark Sea By Leonardo Sciascia Translated from the Italian by Avril Bardoni Introduction by Albert Mobilio Sciascia examines the contradictions—sometimes comic, sometimes deadly, and sometimes both—of Sicily's turbulent history and day-to-day life.

The Day of the Owl By Leonardo Sciascia Translated from the Italian by Archibald Colquhoun and Anthony Oliver Introduction by George Scialabba This short, beautifully paced novel is a mesmerizing description of the Mafia at work.

The Moro Affair By Leonardo Sciascia Translated from the Italian by Sacha Rabinovitch Introduction by Peter Robb The Moro Affair presents a chilling picture of how a secretive government and a ruthless terrorist faction help to keep each other in business.

Leonardo Sciascia Collection Get all five NYRB classics by Leonardo Sciascia.

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