Zero Zero Zero by Roberto Saviano

Roberto Saviano dedicates this book to his armed Carabinieri bodyguards and the 51,000 hours they’ve spent together since previous work Gomorrah sent him into hiding from the Neapolitan Mafia. He expands his pool of enemies exponentially here by sketching an intricate map of the international cocaine trade. The power of the white powder fuels an economy of unimaginable scale, which – like gas, oil and steel – regulates global markets and impacts financially on even the most sober everyday lives. 

Unlike loosely comparable works – some excellent, like Simon Strong’s Whitewash and Robert Sabbag’s Snowblind – Saviano looks beyond single regions of the world or functions of the supply chain to zoom out over a complete industry; one headed by men who weigh their money rather than count it. That chain consists of coca farmers, jungle labs, cartels, smugglers, brokers, dealers and ends with the user. He writes beautifully at times, a natural storyteller showboating with technique. It seems that novels await – if García Márquez can move from magic realism to reporting the News of a Kidnapping, surely Saviano can reverse the switch. His creativity occasionally proves his undoing however – in some instances inappropriate in relating to the stark reality of his subject. A slight flaw, placing this excellent, elegant and brave piece of journalism just below the ‘zero zero zero’ rating of the purest grade cocaine it investigates.