THE FLORIOS OF SICILY

An earthquake in the autumn of 1799 forces the relocation of the real-life Florio family from a devastated Calabria to Palermo, Sicily, where seismic changes of another kind continue to occur within the renowned family—and their new homeland—over the course of three generations.

Siblings Paolo and Ignazio Florio struggle to grow their burgeoning spice business in their new home, facing cultural and financial obstacles before reaching a level of acceptance from their Sicilian neighbors. In addition to competition from local merchants, their efforts to expand their trade are confounded by the era of rising Napoleonic power. Matters are further complicated by the difficult relationship between Paolo and his unhappy wife, Giuseppina, who is angered by her powerlessness in the marriage and her forced relocation to Sicily. After Paolo’s death, the business grows and prospers under Ignazio’s guidance while Ignazio himself lives an existence constrained by his lifelong unrequited passion for his widowed sister-in-law. Ignazio guides his beloved nephew, Vincenzo, into the increasingly more successful family business, and it is under Vincenzo’s steely-eyed and unrelenting leadership that the enterprise expands beyond the spice trade into a hydra-headed entity dealing in sulfur, textiles, spices, insurance, Marsala wine, medicinal herbs, shipping, and banking. Vincenzo’s own complicated personal life—involving a long-term liaison with the mother of his children—recalls that of his parents. The broad scope of Auci's narrative encompasses the personal and professional difficulties endured by both women and men within the family while dealing with issues of class as well (the Florios were often derided as traders and shunned by the insular Sicilian nobility). A condensed course in Sicilian history and Italian unification is interspersed between chapters and serves to place the Florios’ struggles in historical context. 

Auci focuses a panoramic lens on the Florio family's achievements while never losing sight of the smaller personal details of their (epic) lives.