Roberto Saviano

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Roberto Saviano.
Roberto Saviano.

Roberto Saviano (born 1979) is an Italian writer and journalist. In his writings, articles and books he employs prose and news-reporting style to narrate the story of the Camorra (a powerful Neapolitan mafia-like organization), exposing its territory and business connections.

In 2006, following the publication of his bestselling book Gomorra, where he describes the clandestine particulars of the Camorra business, Saviano has been threatened by several Neapolitan “godfathers”. The Italian Minister of the Interior has granted him a permanent police escort. Because of his courageous stance, he is considered a "national hero" by important author-philosophers such as Umberto Eco.

[edit] Biography

Saviano was born in Naples, where he graduated in Philosophy at the University of Naples, "Federico II". As a journalist, he collaborates with L'Espresso and La Repubblica, and other magazine including: Nuovi Argomenti, Lo Straniero, Nazione Indiana, Sud, and can be found in various anthologies such as Best Off. Il meglio delle riviste letterarie italiane (2005), and Napoli comincia a Scampia (2005).

In 2006, following the success of the non-fiction Gomorrah, which strongly denounces the activities of the Camorra, Saviano received strong threats. These have been confirmed by the collaborators for justice and reports that have revealed attempts on Saviano’s life, by the Casalesi clan. After the Neapolitan Police investigations the Italian Minister for Interior Affairs Giuliano Amato assigned a personal body guard and transferred him from Naples.

Gomorra won the Viareggio-Repaci Opera Prima, the Premio Giancarlo Siani, the Dedalus, the Lo Straniero, the Letterario Edoardo Kihlgren Opera Prima, the Tropea, the Vittorini per l'impegno civile il Guido Dorso per la Letteratura prizes.

In January 2008 copies in Italy sold surpassed 1,200,000.

Gomorra has been translated in 42 countries. It appeared in the best sellers’ lists of Germany, Holland, Spain, France, Sweden and Finland. The New York Times has placed it amongst the most important books of 2007, while The Economist has included it among the hundred books of the year. Saviano is the only Italian to be placed in both lists.

Gomorra has been made into a play written by Saviano with Mario Gelardi and a film directed by Matteo Garrone and produced by Fandango.

Gomorrah was described by scholars and authors as part of a turbulent, heterogenous stream in Italian writing called the New Italian Epic, whose representatives are particularly keen on producing not only novels and non-fiction narratives, but also real UNOs, Unidentified Narrative Objects[1]. Gomorrah itself was repeatedly described as a UNO[2] by representatives of the Wu Ming Foundation.

[edit] External links and resources

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Italian novelist Wu Ming 1 explains the concept of New Italian Epic in a conference at Middlebury College, VT, March 31st, 2008 - audio, English, 50:00
  2. ^ "Appunti sul come e il cosa di Gomorra, on wumingfoundation.com, June 2006 (Italian)