Gomorrah (Picador Classic)

In the Camorra system murder is necessary; it's like depositing money in the bank, purchasing a franchise, or breaking off a friendship.

Since Gomorrah was first published in Italy in 2006, Roberto Saviano has received so many death threats that he has been assigned police protection in his native Naples. A groundbreaking study and a searing exposé, Gomorrah is the astonishing true story of the renowned crime organization the Camorra, known by insiders as 'the System'. With a global reach, large stakes in construction, high fashion, illegal drugs and toxic waste disposal, the Camorra exerts a malign grip on cities and villages along the Neapolitan coast.

In pursuit of his subject and in order to gain access into this notorious group, Saviano worked as an assistant at a Chinese textile manufacturer, on a construction site and as a waiter at a Camorra wedding. Now an international sensation, it is at once a bold and gripping piece of investigative journalism as well as the story of one brave young man, his life in Naples and his contempt for the murderous organization who destroyed the place he calls home.

'Powerful and poetic' Sunday Telegraph
'After reading Gomorrah, it becomes impossible to see Italy, and the global market, in the same way again.' New York Times