Roberto Saviano
Zero Zero Zero

Before TV series came along, there was him, in 2006 with "Gomorra" and then in 2013 with "ZeroZeroZero." Today, drug trafficking is undoubtedly one of the hottest topics among TV series producers, and it is on the wave of this success that I propose a review of the novel "ZeroZeroZero" by Saviano.

Names, names of people, names of cities, names of cartels, names of secret operations and then numbers, kilos of cocaine, millions of dollars, and thousands of deaths. If I were asked to summarize the novel "ZeroZeroZero" in two words, I would, without a shadow of a doubt, say: "names and numbers." This statement does not diminish Saviano's ambitious project to condense the history of global cocaine trafficking into 450 pages. It talks about the violence of Mexican cartels, guerrillas in Colombia, the unchallenged dominance of the 'Ndrangheta in global drug trafficking, DEA operations to protect the United States from the white powder invasion, the (perhaps little-known) power of the Russian mafia, drug routes in the Atlantic Ocean and the strategic importance of African ports, the effects of substance use and how it is today the engine and life force of Western society. It talks about this and much more in "ZeroZeroZero," and in doing so, Saviano adopts a storytelling strategy as if he were in front of a class eager to know everything about coca trafficking immediately, and he does so by overwhelming the reader with an endless series of notions, data, names, and numbers. At the end of the reading, the effect is like being hit by a hook straight to the face, leaving you stunned for a moment, and only when you regain consciousness do you start to rethink what you've read, the infinite plots and crisscrosses, the thousands of people involved in this business, and above all, the social, political, and economic devastation that this plague brings to our society every day.

"ZeroZeroZero" is an investigative novel in which the author gives you the opportunity to peek inside the world of drug trafficking, and in doing so, opens the main door for you without hiding anything. It is a book that makes you reflect, that shocks you, that unsettles you, and risks plunging you into a vortex from which you cannot escape, a sort of toxic addiction. Within this vortex, you might find yourself having a completely different vision of things, of people, of the world, and everything might seem to be implicated, in one way or another, with drug trafficking, even the pizza delivery guy who will soon ring your doorbell, but maybe he really is.