Product Description

'In a book packed with murder and beatings, Saviano names names and points to the bodies...Naples will never be the same.'

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4070 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 424 pages

Review
`A masterpiece' --The Times

'The book that did most to confirm my worst suspicions about who and what we are was Roberto Saviano's.'
--The Times Literary Supplement

'A courageously researched account of how gangsters are ruining one of the most beautiful cities in Europe.' --Books of the Year, The Evening Standard

'A tragic, brutal and bloody reality...A profoundly powerful book.' --The Independent

'His furiously impassioned book has led 'the System' to declare they want him dead by Christmas... a must read.' --Non-Fiction Books of the Year - The Metro (National)

Review
'The Neapolitan author is only 28, with a single blazingly vivid and courageous book to his name'

Review
`Gritty, often heartbreaking, this menacing expose holds you by the throat'

Customer Reviews

Opening the Floodgates
Roberto Saviano is a 28 year old man, who grew up in Secondigliano, a rundown of 10,000 inhabitants on the fringe of Naples, of which 2468 residents are incarcerated for mafia and camorra related activities and the rest have simply been abandoned to their fate. It is also the trading centre through which about 80% of Europe's cocaine is filtered through, packaged, distributed, marketed, cut, and sold on. This is an unpalatable reality few outside of Italy understand, care about or are able to believe. And this little book has opened a floodgates, no less for the Italians who have always known the extent of the Camorra's corruption on all levels of italian and international society, but who, out of fear, or inability to get close, have not been able to speak about it in this much detail. Roberto's life has been largely destroyed by the writing of this book. He has had to change identity, separate from his family and lives under 24 hour police escort. But for those who live here, in the shadow of mafia, surrounded by the stink of corruption, of Naples' uncollected rubbish, of silent witnesses and a society still living in a dark middle age marked with bloodshed and hopelessness this book has opened a floodgates which may hope may finally lift the cover on a tragedy that affects not only the entire country, but all of Europe, and the world.
Please read this. The Camorra is not a Scorcese movie, the mafia is not some antiquated clichè. We live with it, and our country is slowly dying because of it. This is not a work of fiction, sadly.

COMPELLING READING
I have read this book in the original language a year ago and it is still quite clear in my mind. The courageous Roberto Saviano is a master in telling true stories , and this book gives you a powerful insight of the Neapolitan mafia and the wider implications for us all in an extremely readable & compelling manner. A MUST for anyone interested in Italy and Italian current affairs. Once you start reading it you cannot put it down!

An act of bravery
Saviano's insight on this deadly subject made me wonder a few times about his personal relationship with the people he so openly denounces. This is a 28-year-old courageous man who has decided to put his life on the line to cast some light into the darkest area of Italy's social and political life. When I read the first chapter, I had the distinct feeling that what I had in my hands was a truly ground-breaking book. When I read about the links between organised crime and global trade, and to such a scale as well, I could understand why Italy is in the G8 in spite of its disastrous economy and almost irreversible ideological void. Who thinks that organised crime is a phenomenon contained within the Italian peninsula, must think again. Eye-opening and inspirational.