Sandokan

SANDOKAN

FIRST PUBLISHED BY EINAUDI EDITORE, TORINO, ITALY, 2004

© 2004, 2009 NANNI BALESTRINI

TRANSLATION © 2009 ANTONY SHUGAAR

FIRST MELVILLE HOUSE PRINTING: AUGUST 2009

MELVILLE HOUSE PUBLISHING
145 PLYMOUTH STREET
BROOKLYN, NY 11201

WWW.MHPBOOKS.COM

THIS TRANSLATION IS SUPPORTED BY A LITERATURE FELLOWSHIP FOR TRANSLATION, AWARDED BY THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS

ISBN: 978-1-61219-407-3 (EBOOK)

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGED THE PAPERBACK EDITION AS FOLLOWS:

BALESTRINI, NANNI.
[SANDOKAN. ENGLISH]
SANDOKAN : A NOVEL / BY NANNI BALESTRINI; TRANSLATED BY ANTONY SHUGAAR.
P. CM.
ISBN 978-1-933633-80-0
I. SHUGAAR, ANTONY. II. TITLE.
PQ4862.A37S2613 2009
853′.914—DC22

2009029731

v3.1

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

I: The Arrest

II: Welcome to …

III: The Zenith

IV: The Origins

V: Death

VI: The Bet

VII: The Great Leap Forward

VIII: Politics

IX: The Fruit Dump

X: Expansion

XI: Albanova

XII: The Africans

XIII: The Owl

XIV: The War

XV: The Victory of Sandokan

XVI: The Morgue

I THE ARREST

the godfather is caught in a trap but he still hopes that he can get away he’s dripping with sweat coughing and cursing as he signals to his two daughters his wife and his brother-in-law not to breathe not to say a word to stay strong because the cops are outside but they can’t figure out where the hell the boss and his family are hiding they know that they’re somewhere in that villa somewhere in that big warehouse of a villa even though they haven’t found him in thirteen hours of knocking down doors punching through walls and tossing tear gas into the air ducts but they’re hoping that he’ll be flushed out any minute now Sandokan is doing all he can to hold out he has plugged up the air vents with clothing and sheets but the tear gas has been leaking through gradually its effects have been weakened but it’s impossible to breathe in the safe room it’s impossible to turn on the air conditioning it would only spread the gas it’s horrible for the little girls Chiara and Angelica are sobbing Sandokan comforts them lovingly it’s okay it’ll be over in a minute stay still be quiet and then around midday somebody hears a woman’s voice a phrase until they go away we can’t move then nothing but silence until the jackhammer starts to punch through a wall in the direction of the voice

immediately followed by another voice don’t shoot I have my children with me I surrender I surrender the voice is Sandokan’s this marks the end of his flight from justice please stop my daughters are here I give up just don’t hurt my daughters don’t hurt my wife and so Sandokan legal name Francesco Schiavone forty-four years old the scarlet pimpernel of the Neapolitan Camorra the unquestioned boss of the most bloodthirsty organized-crime family in southern Italy the clan from Casale waited for the officers of the DIA the Direzione Investigativa Antimafia stood there waiting for them with his two daughters in his arms when it dawned on him that there was no way out he turned himself in to the chief of the Naples DIA Guido Longo who was Catania-born and like him forty-four years old who had been on his trail for the past seven months or so tracking him the way a hunter does a hare Sandokan surrendered when he heard the wall crumbling and collapsing the wall that separated his hideout from the rest of the house he walked out of his safe room with Chiara and Angelica in his arms shouting to the police that he had his daughters with him and that he would not make any dangerous moves