Roberto Saviano is best known for his work on the Italian mafia, but Beauty and the Inferno, winner of the European Book Award 2010, also tackles universal themes with great insight and humanity, with urgency, and often with anger.
This important collection includes essays across a remarkably wide field of interests, celebrating personal heroes as diverse as Frank Miller and Lionel Messi.
However as with the bestselling Gomorrah, his fearless and unflinching condemnation of the mafia takes centre stage. Implicit in Saviano's tributes to writers, musicians, sportsmen and journalists is the message that there is an alternative to living in corruption and fear.
Beauty and the Inferno is a searing polemic that encompasses Saviano's vision of life and of art, of the good to be found in humanity and the evil inherent in power. His commitment to truth resonates from every page.
By:
Roberto Saviano
Translated by:
Oonagh Stransky,
Oonagh Stransky
Imprint: MacLehose Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: 1
Dimensions:
Height: 210mm,
Width: 127mm,
Spine: 26mm
Weight: 202g
ISBN: 9780857050106
ISBN 10: 0857050109
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 01 August 2012
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Preface: The Dangers of Reading. SOUTH: Letter to My Land; Miriam Makeba - The Anger of the Brotherhood; From Scampia to Cannes; Fighting Evil with Art; Truth, Despite All Else, Exists; When the Earth Shudders, Cement Kills. MEN: Brittle Bones; Playing It All; Tatanka Skatenato; The Man That Was Donnie Brasco; Siani, a True Journalist; The Lighthouse Keeper; In the Name of the Law and the Daughter; Felicia. BUSINESS: The Magnificent Merchandise; Constructing, Conquering; The Plague and Gold; Vollmann Syndrome; Apocalypse Vietnam; Today Is Yours Forever. NORTH: The Ghosts of Nobel; Speech at the Swedish Academy; The Demon and Life; The Infinite Conjecture; Never Again in a World Apart; He Who Writes Dies. Acknowledgements. Appendix I: Sources. Appendix II: Glossary.
Author Website:
http://www.wardmccandlish.co.uk/AuthorPhoto/QuercusPublishing/Oonagh_Stransky.jpg
Roberto Saviano writes for La Repubblica as well as many newspapers around the world. After the success of Gomorrah, he received several serious death threats that obliged the Italian government to provide him with 24-hour protection. He has been living in hiding since 2006. Oonagh Stransky's translations have twice been nominated for the Dublin IMPAC Award.
Reviews for Beauty and the Inferno
'He is always erudite, prickly and trenchant' Catholic Herald. * Catholic Herald * 'a sad book in many ways because it illustrates the price that can be paid for courageous writing' Guardian. * Guardian * 'A man determined to describe the world exactly as he finds it, and in words calculated to rouse the passion of his readers ... Like the greatest of Italian writers, Dante Alighieri, he is above all a moralist who despise those who take no sides in the great struggles of our time' Matthew Hoffman, Independent. * Independent * 'When he tackles the crime lords of southern Italy that his voice soars in a crescendo of outrage ... After reading this, we should all be howling. Somebody might, eventually, hear us' Irish Times. * Irish Times * 'At once deeply disturbing and illuminating ... a litany of hope' Alan Taylor, Scottish Sunday Herald. * Scottish Sunday Herald * 'Frank, impassioned and frustrated - these essays from the reporter who lives under threat of death for speaking out against the Italian Mafia put acquiescing bystanders to shame' Sunday Telegraph. * Sunday Telegraph * 'A celebration of bravery and an expression of rage against corruption and cowardice' Caroline Moorehead, T.L.S. * TLS * 'It is good to be reminded of the raw bravery of the Savianos of this world and to salute them for the sacrifices they have made in their challenges to power' Duncan Campbell, Guardian. * Guardian *
- Winner of Le Prix Livre Europeen / Europe Book Prize, Essay Category 2010
- Winner of Le Prix Livre Europeen / Europe Book Prize, Essay Category 2010.
