Roberto Saviano has been on a Mafia hit list for 15 years. In Naples, the writer tells of a life in the shadows
On a Friday in autumn 2006, local newspapers and prosecutors in Italy’s south-western region of Campania received the same anonymous letter. Computer-typed and delivered by hand in the early morning, it detailed the Neapolitan Mafia’s plan to execute a 26-year-old Italian writer. His name was Roberto Saviano and his book, Gomorrah, a devastating denunciation of the Camorra’s criminal activity, was on its way to becoming a bestseller.
The unpublished letter, seen by the Observer, refers to a meeting held in a betting office in Casal di Principe, Saviano’s hometown, in which local bosses, known as some of the most violent in the Camorra, decreed that Saviano must die, saying that his murder would take place “when the waters are calm”.
The letter stated that Saviano “must be punished”, that the bosses knew where his mother lived, that they’d been following him for weeks and that two hitmen had already been commissioned to murder him. It explained that “the weapons that will be used for the execution have already been placed” in an associate’s house. It concluded with a threat in bold type and underlined: “If he shuts up, he’ll be spared.”
A lot has changed since that day. Gomorrah, which has sold more than 10m copies worldwide, has been translated into more than 50 languages and
