Gomorrah - Roberto Saviano

A passionate, troubling and at times personally conflicted exposé of the Neapolitan mafia the Camorra, Roberto Saviano examines the origins, the history and the bloody rise to power of the various clans to become a powerful and influential force not just in Campania or Italy but throughout the world. In Gomorrah, in a manner that would force him to go into hiding following publication, he names names, examines the environment that gave rise to the Camorra, and tries to understand the thought processes behind their actions, behaviour and their business practices.

What is revealed is staggering and on a scale almost beyond the ability of the reader to grasp. Saviano shows a more widespread and powerful organisation than the more well-known Sicilian mafia, a confederation of clans and cartels that has its fingers in almost every aspect of world commerce - not just gun-running and drug-dealing, but in everything from the fashion industry (passing off high quality copies with the tacit agreement of the main fashion houses) to electronic goods and even monopolising the waste disposal industry. In a nice symmetry, the novel opening by looking at how all the world's commerce passes through Naples, and ending with a look at how it all comes back to Naples as waste to be illegally disposed of in the surrounding countryside.

Exceptionally well-written in this respect, full of poetic, original and insightful observations (which some clearly find difficult to read) that strive to capture the enormity of the scale of the Camorra's activities, the book can also be quite shocking, describing the killings and clan wars, the battles over territory, the grim tortures and executions carried out to anyone who opposes the System. It's a fascinating look at the manners and morals not just of the Camorrah, but of of the world today, of big business of the most ruthless sort taken to its ultimate extreme, with no social conscience or long-term outlook. Truly terrifying.