What Hell is Not is set in Sicily in 1993, a time when the Mafia mostly controlled the island. This is just after the murder of Giovanni Falcone, the anti-mafia judge, so obviously being anti-mafia, especially in public, was a very dangerous thing to do. The book is based on the real-life character of Giuseppe ‘Pino’ Puglisi who was born, like the character of Father Don Pino in the book, in the real Sicilian neighbourhood of Brancaccio. Giuseppe must have been a very brave man indeed.