Norman Lewis

The Honoured Society describes how the US army returned the Mafia to power in 1944, after Mussolini came close to destroying them. It looks at the Mafia in their homeland - how in attempting to preserve Sicily for the Sicilians in the face of countless invasions it infiltrated every aspect of the islands life, corrupting landowners, the police, the judiciary and even the church. In one chilling chapter Norman Lewis details the escapades of eighty-year-old Padre Camelo, who led his monks on sprees of murder and extortion, frequently using the confessional box for transmitting threats.

In 1934, Norman Lewis and his brother-in-law Eugene Corvaja travelled across the breadth of Spain on what turned out to be the eve of the murderous civil war. Commissioned by his Sicilian father-in-law to locate the tomb of the last Spanish Corvaja in the cathedral of Seville, when public transport came to a standstill, the two walked more than a hundred miles to Madrid, and were then forced via Portugal to Seville. Lewis makes light of being caught in the crossfire of a fractious country, sometimes literally, and glories in the beauty of nature and the common humanity of the Spaniards he meets on the way. What is entirely in keeping with the mischievous character of Norman Lewis is that this, his very last book, is also his first. For the extraordinary set of misadventures distilled and honed by the nonagenerian writer in The Tomb of Seville were first described in Lewiss apprentice work, Spanish Adventure.

With dry, laconic wit, Norman Lewis remembers his transformation from stammering Welsh schoolboy to worldy wise, multilingual sergeant in the Intelligence Corps, on the cusp of becoming a writer. With a calm, observant gaze from the start, the young Norman moves from Spiritualist parents in Enfield to live with supremely dotty aunts in Carmarthen, whose baking of a weekly cake to feed the jackdaws gives the book its title. Escaping his eccentric family by marrying the daughter of a Sicilian associate of the Mafia, Norman made a living as a wedding photographer and by dealing in cameras, while restoring and racing Bugattis for pleasure. Here we see his first journeys in Spain, Cuba and the Yemen and a wartime spent in Algeria, Sicily and Italy, all of which acted as an apprenticeship for his career as one of the twentieth centurys greatest travel writers.

The Missionaries is a searing examination of attempts by North American fundamentalist Christian missionaries to convert indigenous tribes around the globe. In a distillation of a lifetimes observation on the ground, Norman Lewis contrasts the self-contained, peaceful traditions of the tribal peoples he so admires with the violence, the ruthless double-standards and the greed of the men and women who seek to convert them. Lewiss description leaves the reader devastated by mans capacity for cruelty and with no doubt as to which of the two - missionaries or tribespeople - has developed the more admirable culture. It was Lewiss writing on this subject that led to the birth of Survival International, which seeks to counter his gloomy prediction that in another thirty years no trace of aboriginal life anywhere in the world will have survived.

La Honorable Sociedad (1964) es un clásico y un libro pionero de la literatura sobre la mafia siciliana. Norman Lewis documentó en él la historia de esta sinuosa organización criminal desde los años de la posguerra hasta principios de la década de 1960. Rastreó sus claves históricas, investigó la extraordinaria pervivencia del feudalismo en Sicilia y presenció el dramático relevo de la vieja escuela de "hombres respeto" por las nuevas generaciones, vestidas con trajes más vistosos e instruidas en métodos más violentos por los mafiosos repatriados de Estados Unidos.

Norman Lewis viajó tres meses por una Birmania que acababa de salir de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Sus efectos aún estaban a la vista. Recorrió carreteras y ríos en transportes cargados de comerciantes, a veces escoltados por el Ejercito. Sobre cualquier desplazamiento pesaba la amenaza de una incursion comunista, alguna insurreccion tribal o un asalto de bandidos.Y descubrio una tierra de deslumbrante belleza, de hospitalidad inquebrantable y con la espiritualidad a flor de piel. Una Birmania donde el director general de Prisiones citaba a escritores medievales ingleses, y el aliento budista alcanzaba incluso a las ratas. En los dialogos de cortesia, la condicion del alma suplia los comentarios sobre el mercado de valores. Para celebrar el ingreso de un hijo en un monasterio, se sucedian los espectaculos teatrales durante tres dias. Todo lo recogio la mirada maravillada de Norman Lewis y lo fijo en un libro salpicado por destellos de humor y que exhala humanidad. Desde su publicacion, Tierra dorada figura en cualquier seleccion de las obras maestras del genero.

La mirada incisiva y la mágica prosa de Norman Lewis aparecen más penetrantes, si cabe, en las colaboraciones que escribió para The New Yorker, The Observer, New Statesman y The Sunday Times. En este primer volumen de la seleccion de sus cronicas, quedan tan patentes su sensibilidad, curiosidad, discrecion y socarroneria, como su evolucion personal. Norman Lewis empezo buscando lugares fuera del mundo moderno que le asombrasen. Ninguno de aquellos destinos existen como los conocio, ni Belice ni la Ibiza anterior al boom turistico. Los mas, como Laos, Birmania, Guatemala y Liberia, han sufrido guerras y golpes de Estado. Para atrapar la esencia de lo vivido, empezo a escribir. Esto le obligo a atravesar la superficie y penetrar en el trasfondo. Con la escritura de Genocidio , cruzo un umbral sin retorno. Norman Lewis ya no pudo permanecer callado. El impacto de esta cronica sobre la aniquilacion de los indigenas amazonicos llevo a la creacion de la ong Survival International.

Lewis entro a Napoli nel 1943 come ufficiale della Quinta Armata americana e gli furono subito assegnate funzioni di polizia, che svolse per tredici mesi. I taccuini che Lewis tenne in quel periodo finirono poi per costituire questo libro. Lewis si aggira in una Napoli trasformata dalla guerra in un immenso, miserabile mercato nero. Questo libro fu pubblicato per la prima volta in Inghilterra nel 1978 e appare solo ora in Italia.

Norman Lewis observa civilizaciones, pueblos y formas de vida poco antes de la terrible devastación que traería la guerra de Vietnam y los cambiaría para siempre. Con su estilo exquisito y una capaci

Collected between these covers are twenty of Norman Lewiss finest pieces of travel writing, spanning a period of 30 years. He brings us face to face with Castros executioner, with a tragic Ernest Hemingway and with the unchanged lifestyle of fishermen in an unspoilt Ibiza. He describes the gentle pleasures of Belize, the ferocious blood feuds of Sardinian bandits and the unpleasant duty of repatriating Cossacks to the Soviet Union in 1944. At the heart of the collection is Lewiss famous report on the genocide of the Brazilians Indians, which led to the creation of Survival International - which campaigns for the rights of tribal peoples. This, Lewis felt, was the most important achievement of his professional life.

Norman Lewis was eighty-three years old when he embarked on a series of three arduous journeys into the most contentious corners of Indonesia: western Sumatra, East Timor and Irian Jaya. Presenting himself as the picture of innocence, he reports only what he observes, using his well honed tools of irony and humour to deliver a devastating assessment of the brutality of the central government in these outlying corners of its empire. Lewis observes the decimation of tropical rainforests in Sumatra and unearths the all-but-forgotten massacre of communists in 1965, and describes his visit to the gargantuan Freeport Copper mine in Irian Jaya- a foretaste of the film Avatar, in which this time the bad guys triumph. He reveals his passion for justice and his delight in every form of human society whilst gently challenging our complacency and lazy indifference.