Zero Zero Zero - Roberto Saviano

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I suppose it started with the Godfather movies. I have always loved films and books about the mafia. I accept that this focuses on the myth of the glamour as opposed to the brutal reality, and untold misery it has caused.. I first discovered Roberto Saviano through his book Gomorrah which went on to be successful as a film and a television series. It is a piece of work that curtailed his liberty as he has been in hiding every since.

However his book - Zero Zero Zero is a powerful piece of work laying baring the world of inter-continental narcotics. It follows the journey from the foothills of South America to its markets in Europe appreciating in value all the time.

I don’t think I had a real concept of its scale, of how ubiquitous it is in society. There is a suggestion that the global economy only survived the financial crash in 2010 by the liquidity from drug money.

Look up at any of the big shiny buildings in any major city and you can probably draw a line back to it.

I think the skill is that the journey of the product is told through hundreds of real life stories. He has been pain staking in his research.

I know nothing about cocaine, so when I wanted to introduce it to my book ‘The Dogs of Avarice’ I turned to this book for my research.

I wrote quite a lot of the book whilst in Sicily looking across the water at a brooding Calabria.

I hope I have done justice to it , Roberto.