Italian · b. 1979
Saviano grew up in Casal di Principe, a town north of Naples run by the Casalesi clan, and spent his twenties working on building sites, in a Chinese textile workshop and as a wedding photographer while taking notes. Gomorrah appeared in 2006, sold more than ten million copies worldwide, and named names. Within months the Camorra boss Francesco Bidognetti had him threatened in open court; the Italian state assigned him a carabinieri escort in October 2006, and he has lived under permanent protection ever since, moving between safe houses and countries. He has written further books on the cocaine trade and on his own condition, worked on the film and television adaptations, and become a permanent target of Italian politicians who resent the picture he draws. Roberto Salvatore Bolaño's phrase about literature as a dangerous profession has rarely been so literal.