The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (1958) is the masterwork of Sicilian literature, written by a prince of Palermo from the family after which the island is named. The novel follows a Sicilian aristocratic family through the upheavals of the Risorgimento with elegiac intelligence and sharp social observation. It won the Strega Prize posthumously and remains the defining portrait of Sicily's complex relationship with modernity.
Goodbye Lampedusa by Rosamund Lupton (2023) is a novel about migration and belonging set partly on the island. Not a journalistic account but a work of empathy that tries to understand what the crossing means from the perspective of those attempting it. For readers who want to engage with the humanitarian dimension of the island's contemporary story alongside its natural beauty.
Italian Ways by Tim Parks (2013) is not about Lampedusa specifically, but Parks's sharp and affectionate book about Italian life — told through train journeys across the country — gives the context needed to understand why a remote island produces some of the country's best capers and most complicated politics simultaneously.