(by Mauretta Capuano).
Writer Roberto Saviano's new non-fiction book based on the story of Neapolitan teen gangs is out this week.
'La paranza dei bambini' (gangs of children), published by Feltrinelli, hit bookstores on Thursday and is being presented Friday, in Rome, the following day in Naples and on November 20 in Milan.
Saviano, who penned the 2006 best-selling non-fiction book Gomorrah: Italy's Other Mafia, based his new work on criminal gangs of Neapolitan adolescents who fear neither jail nor death.
In an interview with RAI's program Radio Anch'io on Thursday, Saviano said he was inspired by "real events", the story of minors in the disadvantaged Forcella district of Naples, where teen gangs 'paranze' (which is also a type of fishing vessel) dominate local crime.
The book "is full of details of stories I picked from judicial investigations and news reports", said Saviano, who added that he was also inspired by filmmaker's Franco Rosi 1963 film Le Mani sulla Città (Hands over the City), a local story of political corruption in post-war Italy.
The author said he wants readers to view things from a criminal's standpoint so they won't feel either "fascinated or distant".
"A criminal perceives the state as a form of interference in his life", Saviano also said.
"The objective is to get space" to gain more control of the territory through criminal activities and "make money", said Saviano.
Soldiers are currently patrolling the Sanità district, another crime-ridden area of Naples, but gang members "don't care", he noted.
"I met some of these kids and got to know them", said the author, who has faced constant threats for exposing the secrets of Neapolitan crime syndicate Camorra and currently lives under police protection in New York.
"Many of those who were able to get away from the 'paranza' will read my book at the Teatro Sanità" in the port city, when it will be presented on Saturday.
In the book Saviano focuses on the controversial rise to power of a paranza gang.
The author said he has always found the metaphor of the paranza to describe these gangs "very poetic and dramatic at the same time".
These boats "deceive" their pray by attracting them with lights.
"I thought that these kids go out to shoot because they are betrayed into thinking, like fish, that the light they see at the end is food, a way to get rich - but they are going to die".
He said the social phenomenon is not limited to Naples but concerns many cities, connecting it with Donald Trump's surprise victory in US presidential election, which he says is "the end of a certain lifestyle".
The 350-page book is a story of innocence and cruel oppression highlighting the lack of hope for a better future of a new generation.
Saviano said it depicts lack of trust in the fact that hard labor will bring results, highlighting how teens are betrayed into thinking that they can get "everything, right away".
In the world of prevarication and corruption they experience there is always someone who "has connections, who is protected and will make it", so they think "it's better to shoot before being shot", noted the author.
"Naples is a great metaphor" of our times, he concluded, with a last thought devoted to mothers.
Saviano said he wanted to show moms that the kids portrayed in his book "think in the exact same way" as their teenage children and "only if you get to know these phenomena you can save them in some way".
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