A novelist who took on the Italian mafia and lived

Reminds me of the story of Andre Camara, who photographed a favela drug war in the mid 80s.

Take away: criminals are vain too.

Sciascia, btw, is one of the biggest thinkers and writers of '900. It is not really defined by his mafia-related novels and takes. He used to be friend with Borges, and was regarded as one of the top men in humanistic culture. Disclaimer: I was born in a town (Campobello di Licata) near his town (Racalmuto), but I'm not saying this because of this fact.

If you never read Sciascia, I suggest you starting from his last, tiny novel: "Una storia semplice". I believe there are English translations that can be found around as ebook or used on eBay.

It angers me that Fascist Italy could push the Mafia to the brink of extinction but Democratic Italy can’t.

Modern version has spawned TV show https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Saviano

Off topic, but I'm always amazed by Archive.md/.is/whatever. To this day I don't understand how they manage to bypass a lot of paywalls.

The mystery about the owner makes it even more intriguing.