Deze familiesaga beschrijft de neergang van een Siciliaanse vissersfamilie over meerdere generaties. Een aanvankelijke poging om hun fortuin te verbeteren, valt uiteen door een reeks verwoestende gebeurtenissen en slechte beslissingen. Elke volgende generatie worstelt met economische tegenspoed, persoonlijk drama en de erosie van hun sociale status. De serie biedt een aangrijpend portret van de meedogenloze strijd om te overleven, waardigheid en traditie in een harde, meedogenloze wereld.
Three generations of fishermen conduct an epic struggle against nature, fate, and society in this tale by realist writer Giovanni Verga. Written in 1881 and set in the Sicilian village of Aci Trezza during the 1860s, the novel recounts an impoverished family's attempts to pay off a crushing debt, to reclaim their lost boat and ancestral home, and to reunite their scattered clan.
On the face of things, Mastro Don Gesualdo is a success. Born a peasant but a man' with an eye for everything going', he becomes one of the richest men in Sicily, marrying an aristocrat with his daughter destined, in time, to wed a duke. But Gesualdo falls foul of the rigid class structure of mid-19th century Sicily. His title Mastro Don, 'Worker Gentleman', is ironic in itself. Peasants and gentry alike resent his extraordinary success. And when the pattern of society is threatened by revolt, Gesualdo is the rebels' first target.