The grotesque game of The Law, played in the taverns of southern Italy, is but a shadow of an even fiercer attitude to life—a potent metaphor for a vigorously hierarchical view of existence which rules over the mezzogiorno, the noonday culture of southern Italy. In this novel we are not asked to pardon or condemn the passion of Donna Lucrezia, the assured self-centredness of the learned aristocrat Don Cesare or even the sinister desires of Matteo Brigante, the controlling godfather. We are asked merely to observe. In this sense The Law seems less a work of pure fiction and more a series of shrewdly noted travel sketches. "The Law is an experience I will not easily forget." -V.S. Naipaul. "Makes Mario Puzo's works look rather tame." -Antonia Fraser