Biography

Roberto Saviano (Italian: [roˈbɛrto saˈvjaːno]; born 22 September 1979) 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.

After receiving death threats in 2006 made by the Casalesi clan of the Camorra, a clan which he had denounced in his exposé and in the piazza of Casal di Principe during a demonstration in defense of legality, Saviano was put under a strict security protocol. Since 13 October 2006, he has lived under police protection.Saviano has collaborated with numerous important Italian and international newspapers. Currently, he writes for the Italian publications l'Espresso, la Repubblica, and The Post Internazionale. Internationally, he collaborates in the United States with The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Time; in Spain with El Pais; in Germany with Die Zeit and Der Spiegel; in Sweden with Expressen; and in the United Kingdom with The Times and The Guardian.His writing has drawn praise from many important writers and other cultural figures, such as Umberto Eco.Saviano identifies as an atheist. Son of Luigi Saviano, a Neapolitan doctor, and Miriam Haftar, a Ligurian of Jewish origins, Roberto Saviano received his high school diploma from the Armando Diaz State Scientific High School and then graduated in philosophy from the University of Naples Federico II, where he was the student of historian Francesco Barbagallo. In 1997, while in high school, he grew close to the Italian Marxist–Leninist Party (PMLI) and published articles on its weekly newspaper, Il Bolscevico, under the pseudonym Roberto Ercolino. However, in 2001, he broke all links with the PMLI.He began his career in journalism in 2002, writing for numerous magazines and daily papers, including Pulp, Diario, Sud, Il manifesto, the website Nazione Indiana, and for the Camorra monitoring unit of the Corriere del Mezzogiorno. His articles at the time were already important enough to spur judicial authorities at the beginning of 2005 to listen to him regarding organized crime.In March 2006, he published Gomorrah, a novel inspired by real events. He is the author, along with Mario Gelardi, of a theatrical work of the same name and is a screenwriter for Gomorrah, the movie based on the novel. On 10 December 2009, in the presence of Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo, Saviano received the title of Honorary Member of the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera and the Second Level Academic Diploma Honoris Causa in Communication and Art Education, which is the highest degree given by the university. On 22 January 2011, the University of Genoa awarded him a bachelor's degree honoris causa in law "for the important contribution to the fight against crime and to the defense of legality in our country". Saviano dedicated the honor to the judges of Milan's district attorney's office who were investigating Rubygate. This led to a controversy with Marina Berlusconi, daughter of Silvio Berlusconi and president of the publishing house Arnoldo Mondadori Editore.Saviano is primarily influenced by southern Italian intellectuals such as Giustino Fortunato and Gaetano Salvemini, by the anarchists Errico Malatesta and Mikhail Bakunin, and by poet Rocco Scotellaro. Additionally, he has said that his educational background includes many prominent writers such as Ernst Jünger, Ezra Pound, Louis Ferdinand Celine, Carl Schmitt, and Julius Evola.In 2015, Saviano collaborated with the Neapolitan playwright Mimmo Borrelli on the play Sanghenapule – Vita straordinaria di San Gennaro, which was part of the 2015/2016 season of the Piccolo Teatro of Milan.

In 2006, following the success of Gomorrah, which denounces the activities of the Camorra, Saviano received ominous threats. These were confirmed by police informants and reports that revealed attempts on Saviano's life by the Casalesi clan. Investigators have claimed that the Camorra selected Casalesi clan boss Giuseppe Setola to kill Saviano.

After the Neapolitan police investigations, the Italian Minister for Interior Affairs Giuliano Amato assigned Saviano a personal bodyguard and transferred him from Naples. In the fall of 2008, informant Carmine Schiavone, cousin of the imprisoned Casalesi clan boss Francesco Schiavone, revealed to the authorities that the clan had planned to eliminate Saviano and his police escort by Christmas on the motorway between Rome and Naples with a bomb; in the same period, Saviano announced his intention to leave Italy in order to stop having to live as a convict and reclaim his life.

On 20 October 2008, six Nobel Prize-awarded authors and intellectuals (Orhan Pamuk, Dario Fo, Rita Levi-Montalcini, Desmond Tutu, Günter Grass, and Mikhail Gorbachev) published an article saying that they sided with Saviano against the Camorra. They also stated that the Italian government must protect Saviano's life and help him lead a normal life. Signatures were collected on the website of the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.Saviano contributed an op-ed piece to the 24 January 2010 issue of the New York Times, entitled "Italy's African Heroes". He wrote about the January 2010 riots between African immigrants and Italians in Rosarno, a town in Calabria. Saviano suggests that the rioting was more of a response to the migrants' exploitation by the 'Ndrangheta, or Calabrian mafia, than to the hostility of Italians.

In November 2010, he hosted, along with Fabio Fazio, the Italian television program Vieni via con me, which was broadcast over four weeks by Rai 3.

Saviano's book, ZeroZeroZero was published by Feltrinelli in 2013, and the English translation was published by Penguin Random House in July 2015. This book is a study of the financial dealings around cocaine, covering its movement across continents and the role of drug money in international finance.

In October 2023, Saviano was given a suspended €1,000 fine for his use of profanity against Giorgia Meloni in December 2020. Saviano used the word during a televised interview while describing Meloni's and Matteo Salvini's anti-immigration stance. Per the ruling, Saviano will only have to pay the fine if he repeats the offense. According to Saviano's lawyer, he will appeal the verdict.