Italian author wins courage award NEWS
After penning an expose about the Naples Mafia, the Italian author in hiding, Roberto Saviano, has won the Pen/Pinter International writer of courage award.
Saviano's 2006 book, Gomorrah, exposes the corruption of the Neapolitan Mafia, exploring the vast influential reach the Camorra has. Since Gomorrah's publication, the 32-year-old Italian writer and journalist has received numerous threats from the Neapolitan 'Godfathers' for detailing clandestine behaviour.
Gomorrah was a best-seller for several weeks after its 2006 release, selling 2.5m copies in Italy alone.
Saviano is sharing the prize with British playwright Sir David Hare. Each year a British writer receives the Pen/Pinter Prize, alongside another writer who have expressed their beliefs at great risk.
'Roberto Saviano took on the Neapolitan Mafia, first in the novel Gomorrah and then in the film made from it,' Sir David said at the awards ceremony in London, 'He did so at great risk to his own safety. My hope in sharing my prize with him is that a measure of recognition from Pen may, in however small a way, make his life easier.'
Saviano sent a message of gratitude saying: 'When you feel that so many need to see, to know and to change, and not just to be entertained or comforted, then it is worth it to carry on writing.'
In 2009, Saviano released a second book which was a collection of articles penned while in hiding, titled Beauty and the Inferno.
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