On my radar: Roberto Saviano’s cultural highlights

The investigative journalist and author of Gomorrah on the delights of Mozart, the restorative tranquility of Andalusia and a lifelong love of Subbuteo

Roberto Saviano is an Italian author best known for his 2006 book, Gomorrah, a no-holds-barred exposé of organised crime in Italy. Born in Naples in 1979, Saviano studied philosophy and started as a journalist in 2002. After the publication of Gomorrah, which was made into a film and then a TV series, he received death threats from the Comorra crime organisation and was placed under police protection; he still moves around constantly to avoid detection. Saviano’s other books include ZeroZeroZero, about the cocaine trade, and the novel Savage Kiss, which is out in paperback now, published by Pan Macmillan.

1. Music

Mozart’s Don Giovanni

Music accompanies every moment of my life. A life which, since I’ve been living under guard, has become a solitary one. The long journeys in armoured cars, the hours in army barracks where I’ve been put up over the past few years; the time spent writing, even reading and studying: it all has a soundtrack, Mozart’s Don Giovanni. I listen to it constantly, that moment when the Commendatore orders Don Giovanni: “Pentiti scellerato! Repent, you rogue!” And Don Giovanni replies: “No, no, I won’t repent. Get away from me!” So there I feel like Don Giovanni. “My heart, my breast is set, I have no fear…” Listening to Mozart and the libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte is a sensual delight.

2. Film

I Lost My Body (dir Jérémy Clapin)

It’s a bleak animated film. The hand of the protagonist Naoufel, which he has lost, spends the whole film trying to reconnect with his body, but it’s been cut off, severed. When you lose a fundamental part of yourself, you can’t expect it to return to its place sooner or later; nothing is mended, you have to keep going forward. And the memory is unbearably painful. It’s not true to say that suffering improves you, because it doesn’t feed you or allow you to improve your life. I sense that the protagonist lives like me, like all of us who keep developing new strategies for being in the world when we’ve lost parts of ourselves.

3. Place

Andalusia

My ancestors fled Córdoba in 1492, which may be why I always want to be in Andalusia. It’s my place, the only place I’ve been happy recently. I was also given the freedom of Seville some time ago. I wish someone would give me the opportunity to go and live there for 10 years, 20 even, with the sole intention of forgetting myself. In Seville, a few years ago, I tested my ability to reinvent a life for myself elsewhere. I put on a black curly wig – to look like Maradona, maybe – and big dark glasses. I walked around for hours unrecognised. But I wasn’t me, and that couldn’t be my freedom.

4. Food

Amalfi lemons

A few days ago I had some spaghetti with lemon. Yes, that’s right, spaghetti with Amalfi lemons – there’s nothing in existence that combines grain and fruit like that. If you’re ever lucky enough to go to the Amalfi coast, eat pasta with lemon. Lemons are the food of happiness, and you can (you must!) eat Amalfi lemons whole. Pulp and peel, juice and aroma, all remind me that I come from the south of Italy, that I belong to a land that is both hell and heaven, that has extremely powerful criminal organisations, the antibodies to oppose them and the restorative balm for when you take a breath to prepare for a new battle.

5. Hobby

Subbuteo

The pleasure of playing Subbuteo: we – the generation born in the late 1970s – are the only ones who can have enjoyed it. After that, it was only computers and screens. Those tiny men that move around, pushed by your index finger, those games conceived and constructed on a green cloth, make the game of Subbuteo the closest thing there is to battles with toy soldiers. But it wasn’t a war, it was the heady thrill of playing football, of having a pitch in your bedroom. If you’ve never played Subbuteo you can’t know the beauty of having a stadium and two football teams under your own bed.

6. Books

Shadow State by Luke Harding; Kleptopia by Tom Burgis

I’ve got a lot of books right here in front of me, I’m looking at them as I try to choose the one I feel has changed my life more than the others. There are two of them in fact: Shadow State: Murder, Mayhem and Russia’s Remaking of the West by Luke Harding and Kleptopia: How Dirty Money is Conquering the World by Tom Burgis. Two outstanding writers, stuck in the beating heart of political and criminal power, sinking their teeth in and never letting go. The books I love are the ones that don’t make you feel safe, that are not comfortable, that when you finish them make you want to kick down your front door, run into the street and shout: everything needs to change. Let this shitty world come to an end, and let something different start at last!

As translated by Shaun Whiteside

Contributor

Roberto Saviano

The GuardianTramp

Related Content

Article image
On my radar: Santigold’s cultural highlights
The US singer/songwriter on the political art of Nina Chanel Abney, her love of interior design and relating to Incredibles 2

Kathryn Bromwich

28, Oct, 2018 @10:00 AM

Article image
On my radar: Laurie Anderson’s cultural highlights
The artist, composer and film-maker on her favourite New York restaurant, the restorative power of Central Park, and the courage of rappers in addressing the current political crisis

Interview by Kathryn Bromwich

28, Jan, 2018 @10:00 AM

Article image
On my radar: François Ozon’s cultural highlights
The French film director on being haunted by Under the Skin, the music of La Femme, and the place where he had his first kiss

François Ozon

14, May, 2017 @9:00 AM

Article image
On my radar: Lias Saoudi’s cultural highlights
The musician on his time in Cambodia, his obsession with Werner Herzog and Brad Pitt’s ‘unbelievable’ hair

Kathryn Bromwich

18, Mar, 2017 @7:59 AM

Article image
On my radar: Alfred Molina’s cultural highlights
The stage and screen actor on the secret life of Eugene O’Neill, the singer Mayer Hawthorne, All About Eve and his favourite Los Angeles eaterie

Alex Daniel

18, Sep, 2016 @10:00 AM

Article image
On my radar: Chris Ware’s cultural highlights
The US graphic novelist on Alexander Payne’s new satire, an exciting new cartoonist and the BBC series he pays to have airmailed across the Atlantic

Chris Ware

05, Nov, 2017 @8:00 AM

Article image
On my radar: Conor McPherson’s cultural highlights
The playwright on Bob Dylan bootlegs and Middle East musicals

Kathryn Bromwich

30, Nov, 2019 @3:00 PM

Article image
On my radar: Lolita Chakrabarti’s cultural highlights
The playwright and actor on eye-opening dance, a Quincy Jones documentary and dining at the Shard

Lolita Chakrabarti

22, Jun, 2019 @4:00 PM

Article image
On my radar: Laura Marling's cultural highlights
The singer-songwriter on Greta Gerwig, an intimate podcast – and what she’s binge-watching in lockdown

Jude Rogers

11, Apr, 2020 @2:00 PM

Article image
On my radar: Jason Williamson's cultural highlights
The Sleaford Mods frontman on a favourite singer-songwriter, a hellish horror film and why he spends seven hours a day on Twitter

Kadish Morris

16, Jan, 2021 @3:00 PM