Biography

Roberto Saviano (born in Naples on 22nd September 1979) is an Italian journalist and writer. He has a degree in philosophy from the University of Naples. In Italy he is a contributor to “L’espresso” and “la Repubblica”, in the US, to the “Washington Post” and “Time”, in Spain to “El pais”, in Germany to “Die Zeit” and “Der Spiegel”. He uses literature and reportage to analyse reality and his first book, Gomorra (Mondadori), published in 2006, soon became a bestseller and sold almost two million copies in Italy, and has been translated in 51 countries. Gomorra is a bestseller also in Germany, the UK, Holland, Belgium, Spain, France, Switzerland and Finland.

As a consequence of the book’s outstanding success and of its uncompromising attack on organized crime, Roberto Saviano received a number of serious death threats that obliged the Italian authorities to provide him with 24-hour police protection. Since 13th October 2006 he has lived in hiding and has to continuously change his movements for security reasons.

The book has inspired a play of the same name, which won the 2008 Olympics of Theatre for Italy’s best new writer, and a film, Gomorra, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and is Italy's entry for the next Academy Awards