From Gomorrah to TV, Roberto Saviano's 40th birthday

Roberto Saviano turns 40. The writer, who with his investigative novel "Gomorrah," published in 2006, exposed the world of organized crime in Campania, was born in Naples on September 22, 1979. Originally from the Secondigliano neighborhood, he attended high school in Caserta and university in the Campania capital, graduating in philosophy. He began writing for magazines and newspapers, but it was with his debut novel that he achieved fame. His first book, "Gomorrah: A Journey into the Economic Empire and Dream of Domination of the Camorra," published by Mondadori, sold over 2 million copies and has been translated into 50 languages. With the success and fame brought by the novel, however, came threats: six months after the book's publication, on October 13, he was assigned a bodyguard. Even today, his online biography on his official social media profiles states, he is forced to constantly change residence. (AGI) Tpi (Continued) 211554 SEP 19 NNNN. Recognized by critics, sometimes opposed by some political figures, Saviano has also been the subject of legal proceedings for plagiarism. The writer was sentenced to pay €6.000 in damages for having reproduced three articles from two local newspapers (Cronache di Napoli and Cronache di Caserta, published by Libra Edtrice scarl) in his novel 'Gomorra'. Specifically, the charges were for the unlawful reproduction of two articles from the first newspaper and the failure to cite the source in the second. After 'Gomorra', Saviano published three more novels: 'ZeroZeroZero' in 2013, 'La paranza dei bambini' in 2016, and 'Bacio feroce' the following year, all three published by Feltrinelli. The Neapolitan writer also wrote the screenplay for the film adaptations of two of his works, "Gomorrah" and "La Piranha," released in theaters in 2008 and 2019. For television, he conceived and worked on the screenplay for the TV series "Gomorrah – The Series," which aired in 2014 and is currently in production. He continues to write, however, for newspapers and magazines: in Italy, he contributes to "L'Espresso" and "La Repubblica," in the United States to the "Washington Post" and "Time," in Spain to "El Pais," and in Germany to "Die Zeit" and "Der Spiegel." On the occasion of his 40th birthday, which the weekly "Il Venerdi" of La Repubblica dedicated to him by publishing a long series of photographs, he wrote on Twitter: "At twenty, you have the face you have; at 40, you have the face you deserve."