Fear guards the lemon grove

Klaus Pichler's book "Fear Guards the Lemon Grove" is the outcome of an artistic investigation into the Cosa Nostra's ascent in the latter part of the 1800s and its relationship to the lemon trade. The scholarly article titled "The Market for Lemons: Origins of the Sicilian Mafia" (The Journal of Economic History 77, 2017) serves as its foundation. Three economists have demonstrated this relationship by examining two historical datasets pertaining to crime, social structure, and agriculture. 

In addition to attempting to explain the Mafia's past, this book also uses it as a model for current situations, as the economic theory known as the "resource curse" holds that an abundance of resources breeds criminality and undermines democracy. Thus, the lemons in this novel can be interpreted as a metaphor for instances that are occurring now that involve valuable commodities like gold, diamonds, crude oil, or rare earths.