A love story inside the 'Ndrangheta

Roberto Saviano's new novel, Mi amor no muere, is based on a real case from the 'Ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia. It follows Rossella Casini, a student from Florence who began a relationship in 1977 with Francesco Frisina, a young man from Calabria whose family had links to criminal clans, and who did not know about those links at the time. Saviano says the case was almost entirely forgotten in Italy and that something in it fascinated him enough to revive it. He frames the book as a novel that narrates a true story, blending crime reporting with fiction. According to the book's account, she was caught in an open war between the Gallico and Condello clans. The interviews were held at the Instituto Cervantes in Rome, where its director Ignacio Peyró received Saviano under heavy police protection.

The killing and the trial

Rossella was staying in Palmi, in Calabria, with the family of her boyfriend. On the night of 22 February 1981, she is believed to have been raped and then killed, according to the account that frames the book. Her parents in Florence waited day after day for her to come home, and she never returned. The most plausible hypothesis raised in a trial that ended without a conviction is that her body was dismembered and thrown into the sea so it would never be found. The book places the dumping near the Olivo islet. The first-instance ruling recognised what it called monumental responsibilities of the Frisina family but found the evidence insufficient. Saviano describes the book as his revenge for her, since she never received justice.

Saviano's life under escort

Saviano has lived under police protection since 2006, when Gomorra, his investigation into the business of the Camorra, brought death threats from the Casalesi clan. Italian authorities assigned him a permanent escort on 13 October 2006. He now moves with two armoured cars and seven bodyguards, and he says he has lived this way since he was 27. He is 47 years old. He has been barred from riding a motorbike since 2006, a restriction he says he would like to lift. He told interviewers that, if he could go back, he would not write Gomorra, which he says has wrecked his life.

Capitalism, women and the mafia

Saviano argues that the mafia has already won the economic battle and that contemporary capitalism has become thoroughly mafia-ized. He describes criminal money as the central nervous system of the economy and says criminal capitalism is the form that has prevailed. In another interview he says women hold a central place inside the mafia because they pass on its codes and rules, and he attributes Rossella's killing to the wishes of Francesco's sister. He also predicts that links between the mafia and the far right will emerge over time. He presents love in the book as a force that pushes Rossella to face danger.

Publication in Spain

The Spanish edition is published by Alfaguara, with Ara Llibres also listed as a publisher. The book is Saviano's first novel with Alfaguara, and it has not yet produced any conviction in the case it retells.