| # |
Page |
Description |
| 1 |
6 |
The Mafia code of silence, "omertà", is
spelled "omèrta". |
| 2 |
7 |
The word "pentiti" means "repenting ones",
not "penitent ones". |
| 3 |
7 |
"Goodbye to the Mafia protection money" is
written as "addiopizzo", while it should have been written
as "addio pizzo", with two separate words. |
| 4 |
7 |
"Organisation" is spelled the Ameriacn way
("organization"), although in the same page you can read
"honour", which is a British/Australian spelling of what the
American would spell "honor". This is not a problem of
Italian (and it is not the English grammar problem I
mentioned above), but it is an annoying inconsistency. |
| 5 |
18 |
"Fontana Nuova" means "New Fountain", not
"New Source". |
| 6 |
22 |
The plural of the Italian word "capo" (I.e.,
"chief") is written as "capos", while it should have been
"capi". The same mistake is repeated on page 200. |
| 7 |
27 |
Somebody belonging to the Neapolitan
equivalent of the Sicilian Mafia is called "camorrista", not
"camorristo". It is the same with other words that end
with "sta". For example, "artista" is used in Italian
for both male and a female artists (but the undefined
article gives away the gender, as a male artist is "un
artista", while a female artist is "un'artista"). |
| 8 |
37 |
Wrong spelling of a preposition: "di
Vigilanza" (which means "of Vigilance") is spelled "de
Vigilanza". |
| 9 |
37 |
The Italian royal family was originally from
the Alpine French region of "Savoy", which is "Savoia" in
Italian, while "Sovoia" is not an Italian word.
Therefore, I cannot imagine that an Italian restaurant in
Manhattan in 1908 was called "La Sovoia". |
| 10 |
49 |
An error similar to #7: "another Brooklyn
camorristi" is wrong because "camorristi" is plural.
It should have been "camorrista". |
| 11 |
112 |
"Gaetono" should have been "Gaetano". |
| 12 |
122 |
"Raimondo" is the name of a man. It
should have been "Raimonda". |
| 13 |
126 |
The Italian for "corps" is "corpo", not
"corpe". |
| 14 |
132 |
"Borgata" is not the Italian word for
"village" and it can mean "hamlet", not "slum". It can
indicate a group of houses along or near a main road or, in
Rome, a working-class suburb at the edge of the city. |
| 15 |
133 |
Rebibbia is in Rome, not Palermo. |
| 16 |
145 |
"Scarpa" does mean "shoe", but in Italian,
not in Sicilian dialect. |
| 17 |
148 |
"Corleonisi" should be "Corleonese".
The name of the Sicilian town is "Corleone", and the ending
in "i" is plural. |
| 18 |
149 |
The murdered General of the Carabinieri was
"Dalla Chiesa", not "Chiesa". The same mistake is
repeated on page 150 and twice on page 180, but ion page 180
the name is also written twice correctly. |
| 19 |
149 |
"Cessation" should be "Cassation". |
| 20 |
170 |
Here is the mistake in English grammar:
"After running his brother's campaign, John made Robert
attorney general". The subject of the main clause is
John ("John made..."), but it was Robert who ran his
brother's campaign. Something like "After Robert ran
his brother's campaign, John made him attorney general"
would have been correct. |
| 21 |
198 |
The sentence "Chi l'ha visto?" should have
been translated as "Who ha seen him?", not "Who has seen
it?". |
| 22 |
201 |
There is no town named "Duisberg" in Germany. Its name is "Duisburg". |
When will authors who write about Italy and Italian ask a bilingual editor to check their texts? I could do it (for a reasonable fee!)
For your reference, here are the links to all past “Authors’ Mistakes” articles:
Lee Child: Die Trying
Colin Forbes: Double Jeopardy
Akiva Goldsman: Lost in Space
Vince Flynn: Extreme Measures
Máire Messenger Davies & Nick Mosdell: Practical Research Methods for Media and Cultural Studies
Michael Crichton & Richard Preston: Micro
Lee Child: The Visitor
Graham Tattersall: Geekspeak
Graham Tattersall: Geekspeak (addendum)
Donna Leon: A Noble Radiance
007 Tomorrow Never Dies
Vince Flynn: American Assassin
Brian Green: The Fabric of the Cosmos
John Stack: Master of Rome
Dean Crawford: Apocalypse
Daniel Silva: The Fallen Angel
Tom Clancy: Locked On
Peter David: After Earth
Douglas Preston: Impact
Brian Christian: The Most Human Human
Donna Leon: Fatal Remedies
Sidney Sheldon: Tell Me Your Dreams
David Baldacci: Zero Day
Sidney Sheldon: The Doomsday Conspiracy
CSI Miami
Christopher L. Bennett: Make Hub, Not War
CSI Miami #2 (Robert Hornak)
Jack Greene & Alessandro Massignani
Peter James
P.Warren & M.Streeter
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