Gomorrah (book)

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Gomorrah
Gomorrah by robertosaviano.jpg
Author Roberto Saviano
Original titleGomorra
CountryItaly
LanguageItalian/Neapolitan
GenreNonfiction
Publisher Mondadori
Publication date
2006
ISBN 978-0-374-16527-7
OCLC 153578620
364.1/060945 22
LC Class HV6453.I83 C42 2007

Gomorrah (Italian: Gomorra) is a book of investigative journalism conducted by Roberto Saviano and published in 2006, which documents Saviano's infiltration and investigation of a number areas of business and daily life controlled or affected by criminal organization Camorra.

Contents

Synopsis

The book describes the clandestine particulars of the business of the Camorra, a powerful Neapolitan mafia-like organization. In this book Saviano employs prose and news-reporting style to narrate the story of the Camorra, exposing its territory and business connections.

In an article in 2020, Saviano said "[w]e forget what Gomorrah really is: Gomorrah is not a mere synonym with Camorra, Gomorrah is an economic system wherein everything is missing, where there are no investments, no opportunities, no education, no jobs, no resources, no businesses." [1]

Since 2006, following the publication of the book, Saviano has been threatened by several Neapolitan "godfathers" The Italian Minister of the Interior has granted him a permanent police escort, but he has often attacked by politicians of Berlusconi's cabinet. Also, his escort has been questioned.

As of December 2008, the book has sold almost 4 million copies worldwide. [2]

The title of the book comes from a text by Giuseppe Diana, a parish priest in Casal di Principe who was killed by the Camorra in March 1994: "time has come to stop being a Gomorrah." [3]

Reception

Gomorrah won numerous literary prizes. [4] In January 2009 the number of copies sold in Italy surpassed 2,000,000.

Gomorrah has been translated in 51 countries. It appeared in the best sellers’ lists of Germany, the Netherlands, 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.

Gomorrah was described by some critics and other Italian authors (such as Wu Ming, Carlo Lucarelli and Valerio Evangelisti) [5] [6] as part of a turbulent, heterogeneous 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. [7] Gomorrah itself was described as a UNO by several critics, readers and writers. [8]

Theatrical, cinematic, television and video game adaptations

Gomorrah has been made into a play written by Saviano with Mario Gelardi and a 2008 film directed by Matteo Garrone and produced by Fandango. On 24 September 2008, the film was picked by ANICA (Italy's Association of the Cinematic and Audiovisual Industry) to represent Italy in the race for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nomination. [9]

In reviewing Garrone's film adaptation of the book, Christoph Huber wrote: "With its interest in moving beyond the categories of novel or non-fiction, Saviano's work has been identified as part of a heterogeneous strain of national literature, subsumed as the New Italian Epic. A term that certainly isn't disgraced by Gomorrah, the film." [10]

In 2014, the book was also loosely adapted as an eponymous television series. [11]

In 2023, an official video game of the same name was released on Microsoft Windows, Android and iOS. [12]

Related Research Articles

Gomorrah or Gomorra may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scampia</span> Suburb of Naples, Italy

Scampia is a modern suburb in the far north of Naples, whose population is about 80,000. To its south are the suburbs of Piscinola, Miano and Secondigliano.

Wu Ming, Chinese for "anonymous", is a pseudonym for a group of Italian authors formed in 2000 from a subset of the Luther Blissett community in Bologna. Four of the group earlier wrote the novel Q. Unlike the open name "Luther Blissett", "Wu Ming" stands for a defined group of writers active in literature and popular culture. The band authored several novels, some of which have been translated in many countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matteo Garrone</span> Italian film director and screenwriter

Matteo Garrone is an Italian filmmaker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roberto Saviano</span> Italian journalist and writer (born 1979)

Roberto Saviano is an Italian writer, essayist, journalist, and screenwriter. In his writings, including articles and his book Gomorrah, he uses literature and investigative reporting to tell of the economic reality of the territory and business of organized crime in Italy, in particular the Camorra crime syndicate, and of organized crime more generally.

<i>Gomorrah</i> (film) 2008 crime film directed by Matteo Garrone

Gomorrah is a 2008 Italian crime film drama directed by Matteo Garrone, based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Roberto Saviano, who also collaborated in the screenplay. It deals with the Casalesi clan, a crime syndicate within the Camorra — a traditional criminal organization based in Naples and Caserta, in the southern Italian region of Campania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francesco Schiavone</span> Italian criminal

Francesco Schiavone is a member of the Camorra, the Caserta organized crime syndicate, and the head of the Casalesi clan from Casal di Principe in the province of Caserta. He has been dubbed Sandokan after a popular 1970s television series starring Kabir Bedi because of his thick, dark beard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antonio Iovine</span>

Antonio Iovine is a powerful Italian Camorrista and one of the bosses of the Casalesi clan from Casal di Principe in the province of Caserta between Naples and Lazio. His nickname is 'o ninno, because of his baby face when he was made a capo at a very young age.

The 21st Annual European Film Awards took place on 6 December 2008 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gelsomina Verde</span> Italian murder victim

Gelsomina Verde was a victim of the Camorra who was tortured and subsequently murdered during the Scampia feud in the city of Naples on 21 November 2004, aged 21.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cosimo Di Lauro</span> Italian mob boss (1973–2022)

Cosimo Di Lauro was an Italian Camorrista who was acting boss of the Di Lauro clan from Naples. Due to his flamboyant nature and passion for designer clothes, he earned the nickname "The Designer Don". Di Lauro is known by some as "o' Chiatto", and to journalists as the "prince regent".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giuseppe Setola</span> Italian criminal

Giuseppe Setola is an Italian Camorrista and former boss of the Casalesi clan from Caserta. Since 2008, he was included on the list most wanted fugitives in Italy, until his arrest on January 14, 2009, in Mignano Monte Lungo. Setola allegedly headed a squad of killers, and was said to have ordered or carried out 18 murders throughout the latter half of 2008. Police began a massive manhunt against Setola in response to the murders of six West African immigrants in Castel Volturno.

New Italian Epic is a definition suggested by the Italian literary group Wu Ming Foundation to describe a body of literary works written in Italy by various authors starting in 1993, at the end of the so called ‘First Republic’. This body of works is described as being formed of novels and other literary texts, which share various stylistic characteristics, thematic constants, and an underlying allegorical nature. They are a particular kind of metahistorical fiction, with peculiar features that derive from the Italian context.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giuseppe Diana</span>

Giuseppe Diana, also known as Father Peppino, was an Italian writer, a scout, and a Roman Catholic priest in Casal di Principe. He was killed by the Camorra.

<i>Reality</i> (2012 film) 2012 Italian drama film

Reality is a 2012 Italian drama film directed by Matteo Garrone and stars Aniello Arena, Loredana Simioli, and Claudia Gerini. The narrative is set in the world of reality television, and follows a Neapolitan fishmonger who participates in Grande Fratello, the Italian version of Big Brother. The film won the Grand Prix award at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.

<i>Gomorrah</i> (TV series) Italian crime drama television series

Gomorrah is an Italian crime drama television series created by Roberto Saviano for Sky Atlantic. Based on Saviano's book of the same name, the show premiered on Sky Atlantic in Italy on 6 May 2014. The series ran for five seasons totaling 58 episodes until 17 December 2021. The 2008 film of the same name is loosely based on the same book, but unrelated to the TV series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stefano Sollima</span> Italian director and screenwriter (born 1966)

Stefano Sollima is an Italian director and screenwriter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salvatore Cantalupo</span> Italian actor (1959–2018)

Salvatore Cantalupo was an Italian actor.

Sodoma: The Dark Side of Gomorrah is a 2012 Italian comedy Vincenzo Pirozzi. The film is a spoof of Neapolitan mafia films, in particular of Matteo Garrone's Gomorrah. It won the Best Comedy Film award at the 2012 New York City International Film Festival, where it had its world premiere.

References

  1. Saviano, Roberto (8 March 2020). "Naples is demolishing Le Vele, symbol of its Camorra past. But I'm not celebrating". The Observer . Translated by Vulliamy, Ed.
  2. Nadeau, Barbie (22 December 2008). "Streets of 'Gomorrah'". Newsweek .
  3. Varese, Federico (August 2009). "The Camorra closely observed". Global Crime . 10 (3): 262–266. doi:10.1080/17440570903079972. S2CID   144668530.
  4. Viareggio-Repaci Prize for best debut novel, Premio Giancarlo Siani, Premio Dedalus, Premio "Lo Straniero", Premio Letterario Edoardo Kihlgren for best debut novel, Premio Tropea, the Vittorini Prize for civic engagement and the Guido Dorso literary prize
  5. A Reflection on Gomorrah in the context of the New Italian Epic , opening talk at the conference "The Italian Perspective on metahistorical fiction: The New Italian Epic", IGRS, University of London, October 2nd, 2008
  6. a single webpage regrouping two articles by major Italian authors published on two important daily newspapers: Carlo Lucarelli, "Noi scrittori della nuova epica", La Repubblica, May 3rd, 2008 and Valerio Evangelisti, "Literary Opera", L'Unità, May 6th, 2008 Archived 2009-03-16 at the Wayback Machine . Lucarelli wrote: "I agree with enthusiasm and great interest to Wu Ming's reflections on the New Italian Epic, and I practically identify myself with many of their observations. By "practically" I mean in terms of a literary praxis, a research done by means of books and novels [...] by means of history, which for us Italians has never become past and is always present and contemporary [...], also by means of telling the hidden everyday life of the camorra, as Saviano did...'" According to Evangelisti, "Gomorrah, which is far from being a mere journalistic report, makes a statement which Jean-Patrick Manchette would have appreciated: crime is not a secondary element of capitalism, a perversion of its principles. On the contrary, crime is at the core of capitalism, it's one of the main pillars of the system [...] This unidentified object – is it a report or a novel? – has a choral nature that links it to epic, in this case an epic that has no heroes but is capable to embrace a whole world."
  7. Italian novelist Wu Ming explains the concept of New Italian Epic in a conference at Middlebury College, VT, March 31st, 2008 - audio, English, 50:00
  8. "Appunti sul come e il cosa di Gomorra, on wumingfoundation.com, June 2006 (Italian)
  9. Eric J. Lyman, "Gomorrah in Oscar's foreign-language gang: Italian organized crime drama joins list of contenders", Hollywood Reporter, September 24th, 2008.
  10. Christop Huber, "Gomorrah", Cinemascope #35 Archived May 14, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  11. Rees, Jasper (4 August 2014). "Gomorra, Sky Atlantic, review: 'ugly, in a good way'". Telegraph. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
  12. "Gomorra, il romanzo di Roberto Saviano diventa un videogioco". Tgcom24 (in Italian). 21 February 2023.