In 1960’s Sicily, the Mafia were everywhere — and never seen. In the town of Cinisi, known as ‘Mafiopoli’, their power was unspoken, and ‘it’s in the air that you breathe’ as the locals used to say. One man however, dared to speak out. Like many Sicilians, Peppino Impastato was born into a family with strong Mafia affiliations. When his uncle was brutally murdered in 1963, Peppino decided to dedicate his life to opposing the Mafia. No-one had ever talked about the Mafia in public before, let alone attacked them. Determined to take on the forces of corruption and privilege, Peppino led a people’s movement against the Mafia, launching a national radio station on which he savagely pilloried both the organization and its allies in the Catholic Church. Peppino was punished for his defiance — he was violently murdered. The spark he lit, however, has not died.On the anniversary of his death, Italy held its first ever national anti-Mafia rally, and today a new generation of activists inspired by Peppino campaigns for truth and justice. In this compelling book, based on exclusive interviews with members of the Impastato family and those who knew them , Tom Behan takes us inside the murky world of ‘Mafiopoli’, and tells for the first time a tale of courage and resistance in the very heartland of Mafia power.

Defiance: The Story of One Man Who Stood Up to the Sicilian Mafia PDF

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