Perhaps in no other novel of the twentieth century the sense of time and place had such a central role and profound significance as in Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa s masterpiece, The Leopard a work which captures Sicilian traditional society in a period of transition when faced with modernity and political upheaval. Written by Lampedusa s cousin and heir, Gioacchino Lanza Tomasi, this new illustrated biography which includes a wealth of unpublished pictures from Lampedusa s private albums in Casa Butera and documents from his family archive, as well as a foreword by Lampedusa biographer David Gilmour explores all the people and places that were dear to the great Sicilian master and are essential for a fuller understanding of his work.