• A wonderfully affecting novel about crime, redemption, the Mafia and the power of Shakespeare to transform a person’s life • Sasà is a Neapolitan Mafioso. At the age of 14 he's leader of a gang of wild boys involved in street violence and drug dealing in the Spanish quarters of Naples, carrying pistols tucked into his socks. He's in prison by the age of 30. • ‘Set Me Free’ is the final line from The Tempest—and it is when Sasà joins this prison’s theatre troupe’s production of famous play that, despite never finishing school, he begins to explore a world of books and literature that profoundly changes him • The novel is largely autobiographical. Salvatore was involved in gangs and went to prison in his youth. He is now a prominent film actor in Italy, and in 2012 starred in the docu-drama film Caesar Must Die (previously screened at Melbourne International Film Festival) about a group of prisoners who stage Julius Caesar, as well as the 2008 film version of Gomorra • Will appeal to fans of The Godfather, Goodfellas, The Sopranos, as well as Margaret Atwood’s recent retelling of The Tempest, Hagseed • Set Me Free is the latest addition to Text's excellent list of works in translation from Italian to English that includes Elena Ferrante and Niccolò Ammaniti. This edition translated by Brigid Maher
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[3.5 stars] An uplifting story of redemption through reading and Shakespeare.
