The Piranhas
Roberto Saviano
The Piranhas
Roberto Saviano
In Naples, a new kind of gang rules the streets: the ‘Paranze’, the ‘Children’s Gangs’, groups of teenage boys who divide their time between Facebook or playing Call of Duty on their PlayStations and patrolling the streets armed with pistols and AK-47s, terrorizing local residents in order to mark out the territories of their Mafia bosses.
Roberto Saviano’s eye-opening novel The Piranhas tells the story of the rise of one such gang and its leader, Nicolas - known to his friends and enemies as the ‘Maharajah’. But Nicolas’s ambitions reach far beyond doing other men’s bidding: he wants to be the one giving orders, calling the shots, and ruling the city. But the violence he is accustomed to wielding and witnessing soon spirals out of his control…
Review
Anna Rotar
Roberto Saviano is probably best known for his internationally best-selling book Gomorrah. Both the book and the subsequent movie catapulted the author and the Italian mafia into the literary limelight and also guaranteed him a life of hiding and 24-hour police protection.
Although the story is fictitious, one can’t help but think these are real events he is unable to write about through his regular yet dangerous non-fiction channels. Having spent most of his life either in the mafia or in hiding and writing about them, Saviano is heavily influenced by his beloved Naples. We learn about the beating heart of the city from its gritty and dangerous streets.
The Piranhas are a new breed of gang;they want to be just like the infamous Camorra. The Piranhas, however, are made up of the youth – teenagers addicted to social media. They terrorise the locals to let them know they mean business.
This book, and learning about the members of the Piranhas, is sad because the rampant violence and bleakness that follows the characters is an unfortunate everyday reality for the youth of Naples. Gang life, controlling neighbourhoods combined with the power of social media and a hunger for status, leaves the young with no choice but to either join or be ruled.
Saviano crafts the story of Nicholas, the wannabe head honcho, with careful observation and respect as he makes his way to the top of the pecking order. Nicholas has few redeeming features, but watching this relentless and ambitious fifteen-year-old fight his way to the top is brilliant. When the violence he inflicts and witnesses spirals out of control, he is faced with a tough decision. It will bring into question both his ambition and whether ruling the city is his true calling.
Saviano carefully lures readers into the lurid glamour of Nicholas’s story with all the rashness and insight one can expect from a writer who is held in such high esteem for the genre. This a great first novel from the author and I expect we shall be hearing more from him and Naples.
Anna Rotar works as a bookseller at Readings Carlton.
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