The owl of the day, each finds its place

Author: Xia Xia
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-01
Features: These are two outstanding mafia-themed novels by the renowned Italian writer Leonardo Xia Xia. The Owl of the Day tells the story of Captain Bellodi, a gendarme who investigates a murder case amidst numerous obstacles. Just when he is on the verge of cracking the case, an invisible force derails his efforts. In Everyone Gets Their Due, the pharmacist Mano and the doctor Roscio are murdered in a small town, and the schoolteacher Laura, the sole investigator, is herself assassinated. Through these works, the author portrays the relentless struggle between justice and darkness in mafia-ridden Italy, exposing the darkness of society and the apathy and indifference of its people.
The protagonist of The Owl of the Day, Captain Bellodi, is assigned to investigate a mafia-linked murder. Bellodi, a former guerrilla who fought against Fascism, is upright, resolute, and perceptive. He faces countless hardships, overcomes numerous obstacles and the criminals' carefully constructed alliances, and gathers evidence against the and their accomplices. His mission is nearly complete until, on his return to his hometown for leave, the situation reverses dramatically. The mafia launches a massive counteroffensive, fabricates false testimonies, and completely reverses the case. Captain Bellodi fails. Evil triumphs over justice. The mafia's law prevails over the nation's law.
Bellodi's adversaries are not only the and instigators but also the informants and the widespread indifference and fear among those around him, as well as the alliance between the mafia and political figures. All these form an impenetrable wall, an insurmountable barrier for him. He fights alone, with little hope of turning the tide. Yet, Bellodi firmly declares that though he is not Sicilian, he loves Sicily and will return there resolutely. He will continue to confront this formidable mafia force without hesitation. Through a murder case and the development of characters and settings, Xia Xia allows readers to witness the mafia's pervasive infiltration into all aspects of social life and to feel the horrifying depravity of their crimes.
The character of Bellodi, revealed with immense artistic power, exposes that what is more severe and terrifying than Sicily's material poverty is its spiritual and moral impoverishment. He is not merely investigating a murder case but fighting to heal Sicily's spiritual and moral ills. Five years after The Owl of the Day was published, Xia Xia released another mafia-themed novel, Everyone Gets Their Due. In Everyone Gets Their Due, readers see no functioning judicial system but only a high school literature teacher, Laura, who consciously or unconsciously fulfills her duty to investigate the murder.
In Xia Xia's view, the judicial system has failed in its struggle against the mafia in Sicily because it desperately maintains the island's and deep-rooted problems. Laura sets out to solve the very issues the judicial system is too weak or unwilling to address. Her intelligence, derived from Italian literature and poetry, is her only weapon, yet she is also too innocent and pure. Almost from the moment of the murder, those around her understand everything, either forming alliances or remaining silent, while she remains oblivious, still delving into the investigation. This silence amounts to complicity and tolerance of the mafia and its criminal activities. Naturally, Laura is powerless to break through the wall of silence, conspiracy, and alliances, and instead is crushed by it. Her death thus carries profound symbolic meaning.
Laura's investigation fails to touch the mafia in the slightest, but it does strike at the very society that allows the mafia to thrive and flourish. The value of her character lies not in her actions as an amateur detective but in the fact that she represents a small world—a microcosm that embodies deep-rooted conflicts between the individual and the state, between personal actions and politics, and between historical evil and new social contradictions. Laura's death, therefore, takes on political, social, and metaphysical significance.
The narrative language of Xia Xia's novels is highly refined. The events he describes are all thrilling and shocking, yet when narrated with a deliberately detached and measured tone, they appear composed and restrained, creating a strange and unfamiliar artistic effect. The philosophical dialogues of the protagonists, their debates on good and evil, and the author's sharp critique of social reality all carry a sharp, biting, and profound depth. These elements blend into the intricate and winding narrative structure, not only shocking readers with the facts themselves but also endowing the novel with deep reflective qualities, thus distinguishing it from commercialized mystery novels. It surpasses literary works of the same genre and represents a development of literary tradition.