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Cover: Suburra - Carlo Bonini, Giancarlo De Cataldo

Carlo Bonini, Giancarlo De Cataldo

Suburra

2017, pp. 528, Paperback
ISBN: 9781609454074
Translated by: Antony Shugaar
Region: Italy
Book collection: World Noir
Available as ebook Available as ebook Available as ebook
£ 13.99
Sample chapter Sample chapter Sample chapter

The book

Fast-paced crime thriller set in Rome: Gomorrah meets House of Cards

Suburra will be released as a Netflix original series in 2017

Criminals on the rise and senior members of the Italian mafia clash in and around Rome over the backing of an urban development bill that promises to turn the seaside town of Ostia into a gambling paradise. The problems plaguing the political system of contemporary Italy are played out against this florid, cinematic background.

Before the end of Berlusconi’s days, a massive real estate development bill that will bury the city’s outskirts under tons of cement remains on the floor in the Italian parliament. Ostia, a small dot of a town on the coast, could become Italy’s equivalent of Las Vegas with the passing of this renewal project. With Italian MPs either in their pockets or forced to vote because of blackmail or the kidnapping of a loved one, the mafia is set to cash-in on the future of this seaside retreat. The local bosses of Ostia however, tired of staying in their place, feel entitled to a larger cut. When the son of a feared Ostia gangster is brutally stabbed and left lifeless on the streets, the safeties come off and all-out war is sparked. Each vote for the bill, will either be caused by blood or bought by way of bribery.

The Italian film–directed by Stefano Sollima, who worked also on the Gomorrah TV series–was released earlier this year: “a terrific mob drama.”
—Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian

PRAISE

“...the period detail is impeccable, while the stark and gritty presentation of the many characters pays dividends in terms of verisimilitude. This belated English translation by Antony Shugaar is rich and idiomatic.”—Barry Forshaw in the FT on Romanzo Criminale (Corvus, 2015, 9780857893727)

“In Suburra, the incidents revealed by the Mafia Capitale investigation were already in large part recounted in the vivid and hard tones (here and there with a bit ‘splatter,’ à la Quentin Tarantino) of ‘fiction,’ but with the realistic breadth that captures a great city tragically ‘delivered’ to political, economic and criminal corruption.”—La Repubblica

Authors

Carlo Bonini
Carlo Bonini is a staff writer at the Italian national daily, La Repubblica.


Giancarlo De Cataldo
Giancarlo De Cataldo is the author of the bestselling novel, Romanzo Criminale, an essayist, the author of numerous TV screenplays, and a judge on the circuit court of Rome.

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