The companion book to the documentary film, A Filmmaker’s Journey reveals the process by which the author/filmmaker was able to capture on film the island nation’s natural beauty, its passionate people and epic human struggles, the depth and diversity of its culture, the philosophic insights that originated there, and its wealth of historic sites -- all of the facets of Sicily that have been obscured by its association with organized crime. BUY THE BOOK

Excerpt: On this particular morning, I need time alone to process a stunning realization: that the Sicily others described to me for decades is nonexistent. During private times on this first trip, I repeatedly compare what I see and hear to all that I was told about Palermo, Sicily, Sicilians, and the world my grandparents left. It did not take long for me to determine that the Sicily I carried with me from all those stories – from grandparents, great aunts and uncles, cousins and friends -- is pure fiction. No such Sicily exists and likely never did. The Sicily I’m discovering is more than, and other than, I ever could have expected. 

About the author and the film:  A first-generation Sicilian-American, author/filmmaker Mark Spano wrote, directed, and produced the feature-length documentary “Sicily: Land of Love & Strife.” He grew up in a blue-collar, downtown neighborhood in Kansas City, MO, populated primarily by Sicilians and other southern Italians. The book “is a record of where my reading and travels have taken me,” he says. He lives in Orange County, North Carolina, near Chapel Hill.