Adhering intensely to the facts of Tomasi's life but moving deep into the mind of the author, Lampedusa inhabits the complicated interior of a man facing down the end of his life and struggling to make something of lasting worth while there is still time. Like Colm Tóibín's The Master or Michael Cunningham's The Hours, a novel about art and writing in the life of one of the greats. "Lampedusa" won Italy's Strega Prize and became the greatest Italian novel of the century.