For the first time since the publication of his internationally bestselling novel, Gomorrah, Roberto Saviano shares his early-life experience with the violence of the Neapolitan Mafia and how exposing them irrevocably changed his life.
By the author of Gomorrah, a gripping novel set in the organized crime world of the children's gangs of Naples - the sequel to Saviano's first novel, The Piranhas.
In Naples, a new kind of gang rules the streets: the 'Paranze', the 'Children's Gangs', groups of teenage boys who divide their time between Facebook or playing Call of Duty on their PlayStations and patrolling the streets armed with pistols and AK-47s, terrorizing local residents in order to mark out the territories of their Mafia bosses.Roberto Saviano's eye-opening novel The Piranhas tells the story of the rise of one such gang and its leader, Nicolas - known to his friends and enemies as the 'Maharajah'. But Nicolas's ambitions reach far beyond doing other men's bidding: he wants to be the one giving orders, calling the shots, and ruling the city. But the violence he is accustomed to wielding and witnessing soon spirals out of his control . . .
International bestselling author Roberto Saviano explores the inner workings of the world of drugs and dirty money - its rules and armies - and the true depth of its reach. From Mexican cartels to Milanese financiers, Guatemalan mercenaries to Ukrainian warlords, Calabrian traffickers to the traders in Wall Street and London who wash the money clean, this is an unforgettable story that goes around the globe and through every level of society to show the extent to which the drug trade affects us all.
"This is a deeply personal and candid portrait of Italy today- a place of trafficking and toxic waste, where votes can be bought and sold, where organized crime ravages both north and south - yet also where many courageous individuals defy the system, and millions work tirelessly for a better future."
Six Italians writing from the margins: these stories are linked by common themes of belonging, dislocation and identity, and together they take the pulse of a country in turmoil.
Roberto Saviano is best known for his work on the Italian mafia, but Beauty and the Inferno also tackles universal themes with great insight and humanity, with urgency, and often with anger. This important collection includes essays on the legacy of the earthquake at L'Aquila, a town at risk of becoming overrun by mafia; on boxing as an escape route; on the life of the legendary South African jazz singer, Miriam Makeba; on an encounter with Salman Rushdie, and a tribute to Frank Miller, author of the graphic novel 300; on Michael Herr's Dispatches. One essay reflects on the aftermath of the publication of his book and subsequent film, Gomorrah, and how his life has been conditioned by the mafia's death threats, and the final essay in the collection celebrates the life of the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
Since publishing his searing expose of their criminal activities, the author has received so many death threats from the Camorra that he has been assigned police protection. In pursuit of his subject, Saviano worked as an assistant at a Chinese textile manufacturer and on the construction site, both controlled by "the System".
