Roberto Saviano

Origins and early life

Roberto Saviano was born in Naples on 22 September 1979 to a Jewish mother, Maria Rosaria Ghiara, a professor of mineralogy from a secular Sephardi family of Ligurian origin, a descent he has described repeatedly in interviews with the Italian Jewish magazine Shalom, with ANSAMed and with Yedioth Ahronoth.

Work and career

He has said that Jewish culture defined his way of looking at life and that it was his Jewish maternal grandfather who taught him to tell stories. He studied philosophy at the University of Naples Federico II and began writing for local papers and for the anti-mafia observatory of Naples. In 2006 he published Gomorrah, an investigation into the Camorra clans of Casal di Principe, Scampia and Secondigliano that combined court records, first-hand reporting and narrative; it sold more than ten million copies, was translated into over fifty languages, and became a film by Matteo Garrone and a television series.

Death threats from the Casalesi clan followed, and he has lived under permanent police protection since October 2006, at times abroad, a condition he has called a form of imprisonment. He has written Zero Zero Zero on the cocaine trade and The Piranhas on child gangs, has campaigned for press freedom and against organised crime in politics, and has been the target of libel suits by Italian politicians, several of which he has won. He holds honorary degrees and the Olof Palme Prize of 2011.