A magnificent journey inside the world of a Sicilian fishing community and its thousand-year-old rituals. . Every spring for untold centuries, great schools of giant bluefin tuna have swum through the Strait of Gibraltar to spawn in the Mediterranean Sea. And there, for untold centuries, men have been waiting for them. In this stunning debut, Theresa Maggio brings us inside the insular world of the tonnara-the ritual trapping and killing of bluefin enacted by fishermen since the Stone Age. In a single, bloody spectacle-called the mattanza-the fishermen harvest the bluefin, lifting them by hand from the Chamber of Death, the last room in an elaborate trap. Theresa Maggio witnessed her first mattanza on Favignana, a butterfly-shaped island off the coast of Sicily. Brought to the island by a fisherman who was in love with her, Maggio in turn fell in love with Favignana, with its white magic and stonework, its anchors and nets. Penetrating this exotic, all-male world as no woman has before her, Maggio documents a dark and beautiful ritual that might soon disappear-a casualty of the modern fishing industry. Part memoir, part natural history, part travelogue, Mattanza is a riveting narrative of one woman's journey into another world, a world where moon lemons grow wild, and where the sea holds the promise of renewal.
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4.6 out of 5 stars
17 reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful book which takes you on a trip with the author.
16 April 2000
By Dorothy Haviland
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
Mattanza Love and Death In The Sea of Sicily by Theresa Maggio pulls you into the world of the men and customs found only on this small island.
Theresa Maggio not only tells a wonderful story, but she is able to paint the scenes and views she has seen into the readers mind. You can see the colorful boats owned by the fishermen, smell the drying nets as they hang in the damp cannery building, and feel the warm sun as she rides her bike from her tiny room into the piazza to wait for her voyage to the chamber of death out at sea.
I am always looking in the NYT travel section for Miss Maggio's travel stories which have appeared over the years. Her photographs are wonderful and revealing of a time and tempo of the villages she visits and shares with us.
Her book is scientifically accurate, honest and a very lovely read.
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mattanza Love & Death on the Sea of Sicily
2 May 2000
By jackie farrow
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
I find Theresa Maggio's fluid style of writing makes me feel that I have actually witnessed what she has described through words. After reading "Mattanza", I felt sad that this ritual is a dying traditon. Maggio has captured another world and brought it into our culture. Thank You Ms. Maggio for this armchair adventure.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Something for everyone!
6 May 2000
By Sharon Rice
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
Theresa Maggio has an incredible gift--the ability to write in a way so as to make the reader feel the experiences as opposed to just observing. MATTANZA is an incredible read--a journey of the heart and soul in the exotic beauty of Italy. A MUST-READ!
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