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Gomorrah

By Roberto Saviano

(21)

| Paperback | 9780330450997

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Book Description

Published to coincide with the eponymous blockbuster film, Roberto Saviano's groundbreaking and utterly compelling book is a major international bestseller. Since publishing his searing expose of their criminal activities, the author has received so many death threats from the Camorra that he has beContinue

Published to coincide with the eponymous blockbuster film, Roberto Saviano's groundbreaking and utterly compelling book is a major international bestseller. 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. Known by insiders as 'the System', the Camorra, an organized crime network with a global reach and large stakes in construction, high fashion, illicit drugs and toxic-waste disposal, exerts a malign grip on cities and villages along the Neapolitan coast is the deciding factor in why Campania has the highest murder rate in all of Europe and why cancer levels there have skyrocketed in recent years. In pursuit of his subject, Saviano worked as an assistant at a Chinese textile manufacturer and on a construction site, both controlled by 'the System', and as a waiter at a Camorra wedding. Born in Naples, he recalls seeing his first murder at the age of fourteen, and how his own father, a doctor, suffered a brutal beating for trying to help an eighteen-year-old victim, left for dead in the street. "Gomorrah" is both a bold and engrossing piece of investigative writing and one heroic young man's impassioned story of a place under the rule of a murderous organization.

Critics

  • Gang rule

    Gomorrah: Italy's Other Mafia by Roberto Saviano, translated by Virginia Jewiss 424pp, Macmillan, £ 16.99 Rarely can a piece of reportage have begun with a more arresting image. A container is swinging in the air as it is lofted towards a cargo ship ... (read full critics)

    guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

  • Mafia uncovered

    Unless you fancy dying in a symbolic and grisly fashion, you don't cross a Camorra member, let alone all of them in one go. So rather than celebrating the fact that his book has already sold nearly two million copies in more than 40 countries, and th ... (read full critics)

    guardian.co.uk published on Fri, 24 Sep 2010

3 Reviews

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  • Most compelling when revealing the business models of the Camorra, eg. the chapters on fashion and landfills.

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    Jubei said on Aug 30, 2010 | Add your feedback

  • The only explanation I can come up with for the near-unreadability of the English version is a particularly egregious case of a publisher demanding impossible rapidity from a translator for marketing reasons (probably the US release of the movie). The name on the frontispiece was one I knew and had ... (continue)

    The only explanation I can come up with for the near-unreadability of the English version is a particularly egregious case of a publisher demanding impossible rapidity from a translator for marketing reasons (probably the US release of the movie). The name on the frontispiece was one I knew and had reason to respect, so I really wasn't expecting this when I bought it for my father: the result is a pretty good argument for passing up even prestigious jobs if the deadline is unrealistic.

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    Biscia said on Apr 30, 2010 | Add your feedback

  • bad translation for a "too italian" book

    I chose to give this book to my bf as a gift and I ended up reading it with him. I got touched by saviano's words, but unfortunately it didn't reach my bf as much as it did to me. I believe the problem to be in the translation. To some extents, it's good to stick to the author's words, but at the sa ... (continue)

    I chose to give this book to my bf as a gift and I ended up reading it with him. I got touched by saviano's words, but unfortunately it didn't reach my bf as much as it did to me. I believe the problem to be in the translation. To some extents, it's good to stick to the author's words, but at the same time some sentences do not make any sense as they are litterally translated, and the reading in general is extremely heavy. Shame, as I really hoped it to help me explain my bf what life in italy is like.

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    Valina said on Feb 27, 2010 | Add your feedback

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