Salvo Montalbano

Salvo Montalbano
Salvo Montalbano character
Actor Luca Zingaretti plays Inspector Salvo Montalbano in the TV adaptation
First appearance	The Shape of Water (La forma dell’acqua)
Created by	Andrea Camilleri (Author) Stephen Sartarelli (English translator)
Portrayed by	Luca Zingaretti (Il commissario Montalbano (Inspector Montalbano)) Michele Riondino (Il giovane Montalbano (The Young Montalbano))
Information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Police detective
Nationality	Italian

Inspector Salvo Montalbano (Italian: commissario Salvo Montalbano) is a fictional detective created by Italian writer Andrea Camilleri in a series of novels and short stories.

The fractious detective's character and manner encapsulate much of Sicilian mythology and astute detective work. The original books are written in a mixture of Italian, strict Sicilian, and a Sicilianized Italian.

Although the Inspector Montalbano series of novels are staged in the Sicilian context, Camilleri uncompromisingly confronts many contemporary political and social problems. The novels were translated into English by Stephen Sartarelli. The translation of the Montalbano novels started only after five novels had already been published in Italian and gained popularity among the Italian-speaking public. Sartarelli has attempted to maintain the mixture of Italian and Sicilian language in the dialogues. In addition, he has added notes at the end of each of the novels, which give short explanations regarding many of the peculiarities of Sicilian and Italian society depicted in the novels.

The name Montalbano is a homage to the Spanish writer Manuel Vázquez Montalbán; the similarities between Montalbán's Pepe Carvalho and Camilleri's fictional detective are remarkable. Both writers make great play of their protagonists' gastronomic preferences.

Inspector Montalbano is an engaging hero – honest, decent and loyal. He has his own way of doing things, and his superiors regard him as something of a loose cannon. One of the strengths of the novels is Montalbano's ability to navigate through a murky world, a world of shady connections and favours owed and owing, without compromising himself beyond what he can live with. There is a great deal of humour in his character, such as his unconditional love for silence while enjoying a good meal, but the primary subtext is hard criticism of the social and political situation of both the Sicilian and Italian contexts. In fact, Camilleri has said that social commentary "...was always my aim. In many crime novels, the events seem completely detached from the economic, political and social context in which they occur. [...] In my books, I deliberately decided to smuggle into a detective novel a critical commentary on my times. This also allowed me to show the progression and evolution in the character of Montalbano."