"Powerful...a sensitive portrait of heroic, often isolated individuals who have fought against 150 years of criminality."---Guy Dinmore, Financial Times (UK)"A first-class work of investigative journalism."---CNBC European Business magazine"The book isn't an investigation but a `journey'...One of the strengths of the book is that Lane understands the complexities of the places he visits."---The Sunday Times (UK)"Damning...a withering indictment of crony capitalism, executive thuggery, and government incompetence."---Phil Edwards, The Independent (UK)"An outstanding example of political writing on Italy....Both engrossing and deeply worrying."---John Dickie, Literary Review (UK)"His book---sober, precise, meticulously researched---is full of such extraordinary and disquieting facts and events that were it not for Lane's long knowledge of Italy they would be hard to believe."---Caroline Moorehead, Spectator Magazine (UK)The hold of the Mafia on southern Italy---from Naples, home of Mafia-controlled mozzarella and toxic waste, through no-less-rotten Calabria, to Sicily, cradle of Cosa Nostra---is as strong as ever. In this memorable journey around the cities and villages of the Italian South, out of his unrivaled knowledge of Italy, David Lane gives us a telling expose of the operations of the Mafia today.Over decades of living in Italy and traveling in the South, Lane has built up a huge network of contacts from all walks of life, which gives him a special strength in tackling the subject. Through his travels around the country, and using his fifteen years' experience as the business and finance correspondent for The Economist, he shows how globalization has transformed the Mafia into more than simply a local phenomenon. His book describes in painful detail the unceasing Mafia pressure endured by priests and politicians, businessmen, trade unionists, and ordinary citizens, and the risks undertaken by magistrates, police, and members of civil society whose commitment to their cause has weakened, but has not destroyed, the Mafia's influence.At the same time, Lane discusses the long and tumultuous history of the South's ancient cities, villages, and countryside. He provides a richly colored portrait of a European region under siege that is very much at variance with the commonplaces of food, sun, and the beauties of heritage and culture for which Italy is best known. Read Less