A modern man on the road… Hanns-Josef Ortheil’s Sicily

Abstract

Hanns-Josef Ortheil wrote two works set in Sicily: Das Kind, das nicht fragte (2012) and Die Insel der Dolci. In den süßen Paradiesen Siziliens (2015). The first of these is a novel with autobiographical elements, while the second consists of a travel story depicting events experienced by the writer while exploring the island. What the two texts have in common is both a reflection on the specifics of Sicily and ‘sicilianness’, and a fable-like quality of the island’s representation, although that quality means something slightly different in each piece.