What do readers think of Gomorrah by Roberto Saviano, translated by Virginia Jewiss? Write your own review.

You've got to read Gomorrah! It's a book written with passion and elegantly translated into English. But, reader beware, the subject matter is the stuff of nightmares. Page after page is filled with images of sweatshops,drug trafficking, murder---and the Camorra's reach into legitimate society. It's poison has insinuated itself into the very fabric of Neapolitan society and further - into the reaches of Europe, the US and China. Saviano has done a great service to society by publishing this book. As a Neapolitan American two generations removed, I am indebted to the author for the courage he has shown in exposing the cancer afflicting the land of my ancestors. Grazie tanto, Saviano. Stay safe!

It is not often that I render an audible gasp on the first page of a book.Gamorrah is not for the gentle souls among us. It is raw, brutally descriptive, and at the same time very informative.I thoroughly enjoyed it and can say this book will haunt my thoughts for sometime to come. If you want to walk on the dark side this is your book. Fabulous !!!

A fascinating account of how the Italian mob in Naples and the Chinese merchandise triangle get us the clothes we wear everyday, as well as the merchandise we see on celebrities. It'll seriously make you reconsider the labels on your clothes.

I really wanted to enjoy this book. With descriptive language like this review's title, how can Saviano's "personal journey" be only average? Well, despite its interesting topic, it didn't really feel like this book recounted a personal journey. We learn almost nothing about Saviano in this book, and when he does insert himself in situations to describe it in a first-person voice, it feels disjointed. As a reader, I could have benefited from a glossary of terms, some maps, and a visual organizational chart of the Camorra families and their interconnectedness. It was very difficult to follow all of the detail. Overall, I can't recommend this book to anyone; maybe someone who already has a strong working knowledge of Naples' organized crime system and to whom the more recent information provided here would be an update?

This book is an extremely engrossing read about the real world of high stakes organized crime operating in and out of Italy today. It will have tremendous appeal to real life crime fighters and mob aficionados across the world, not to mention anyone with generational ties to Italy as a homeland. Well written and extremely informative, it engages the reader in a tell all approach of the extensive world wide implications of organized crime originating in and out of Naples today. Graphic and disturbing, it gives factual details only an "insider" would have access to. Particularly fascinating is the increasingly large part women play in the leading role of organized family clans. "The Godmother", if you will. One could only imagine a blockbuster film coming out of this information. This reader would have preferred more details about how the writer actually infiltrated "The System" but perhaps that will be a follow up to this this amazing read.

The author gives an insider's view of a monstrous system that is all the more disquieting because you're in there with him. Besides the titillation of so much blood and excess, what kept me reading was the intelligence and heart in the work. The tone sounds raw and cynical but it isn't without occasional touches of poetry and sentimentalism. The author never stayed in one mode long enough to get tiresome. I was shocked by what this book had to say. I don't know if I was convinced by the litany of the names and places or if I just sympathized with a good writer. His heart's in the right place. I hope it's still beating somewhere.

In spite of an over use of metaphors and names and events that can be a bit confusing, this is a shocking piece of investigative reporting. It is an expose of the criminal activities of the Camorra {the system} in Naples. This book presents an engrossing and disturbing story not widely reported here in the States.

If Gomorrah were set in Chicago, I would have hung on every detail. Saviano, however, takes us to a Naples definitely not made for tourists. Peppered with the dark corners of unfamiliar alleyways, confused by scores of family names and lineage, I often just wanted to escape Gomorrah. Still, curiosity propelled me into the very current realities of the underbelly of moving drugs, jeans, and Barbie dolls around the world, of what "made in China" really means. And, behind the flood of family names was the peek inside the Camarrista and its women, including the ironically named Immacolata Capone. Perhaps most alluring was Saviano's very personal passion about his native neighborhood and - I can't help but wonder - his courage in naming its sinners.