Interesting essay in The Guardian – a self-assessment by Roberto Saviano, the writer of Gomorrah:

“I’m often asked if I regret writing Gomorrah. Usually, I try to say the right thing. I say, “As a man, yes, as a writer, no.” But that’s not the real answer. For most of my waking hours I hate Gomorrah. I loathe it. At the beginning, when I told interviewers that if I had known what was coming, I would never have written the book, their faces would fall. If it was the last question in the interview, I’d go away with a bad taste in my mouth, feeling like I hadn’t come up to scratch. I realised that I should have said, of course, that I’d do it all again tomorrow. That I would sacrifice everything, all over again. But so much time has passed now I feel like I’ve earned the right to share my regrets, and admit, I miss the time I was a free man. Whatever I would like my life to be, the fact is, I wrote Gomorrah, and I pay the price every day.”

Saviano’s “non-fiction novel” was turned into a brilliant TV series last year – probably the best ‘new’ television I watched last year (the second seasons of 'Orange is the New Black' and 'House of Cards' were both a little disappointing). Reading this article has made me order Gomorrah the book and Gomorrah the film (92% on Rotten Tomatoes).