Roberto Saviano
Zero Zero Zero

LA RECENSIONE

I will be brief, but a premise is necessary: I have no intention of wasting time searching for the letter on the web, apostrophes or accented vowels because the keyboard is out of order; come to terms with it as I have.

This book by Saviano is not a true novel, it's more of an investigation or a reportage on cocaine and the effects of its production and trade rather than the effects on individuals who use and consume it.

After reading this book, you no longer see things in the same way but review everything under the focal lens of the drug.

While reading it, I had to catch my breath many, many times, like a boxer in the ring after taking several hard hits.

Compared to horror films where bloody events succeed relentlessly, like some reviewed here on DeBaser, well, in comparison, they are almost mild when compared to the grim facts narrated with knowledge by Saviano.

It goes without saying that mafias, camorras, 'ndranghetas, not only Italian ones, dominate here alongside politicians and military personnel from all over the world.

No one is spared here, neither innocent children, nor pregnant women, nor the elderly, nor defenseless peoples who don't even use cocaine...

I doubt Roberto will one day manage to live freely after all he had the guts to tell, but I wish him all the best; there are no other writers or journalists with his courage.