Summary of Roberto Saviano's Zero Zero Zero

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The people who use cocaine are right next to you. The police officer who is about to pull you over has been snorting for years, and everyone knows it.

#2 I was asked to write about a speech that had been recorded on an iPhone at a meeting. The police wanted to know if the story went the way the young man said it had, or if it had been staged.

#3 The police officer told me that the young man, his informant, had heard the only valuable lesson - how to be in the world - and had recorded it on the sly. If I wrote about it and nobody did anything, it would prove that the young man was telling the truth.

#4 The police officer read me the transcript he’d made. They’d met in a room not far from where we were, randomly seated, not in a horseshoe like they do at ritual initiations. The old Italian began speaking without even introducing himself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 11, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822514133

IRB Media

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Insights on Roberto Saviano's Zero Zero Zero

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The people who use cocaine are right next to you. The police officer who is about to pull you over has been snorting for years, and everyone knows it.

#2

I was asked to write about a speech that had been recorded on an iPhone at a meeting. The police wanted to know if the story went the way the young man said it had, or if it had been staged.

#3

The police officer told me that the young man, his informant, had heard the only valuable lesson - how to be in the world - and had recorded it on the sly. If I wrote about it and nobody did anything, it would prove that the young man was telling the truth.

#4

The police officer read me the transcript he’d made. They’d met in a room not far from where we were, randomly seated, not in a horseshoe like they do at ritual initiations. The old Italian began speaking without even introducing himself.

#5

The rules of the organization are the rules of life. Government laws are the rules of one side that wants to fuck the other side. You must live for yourself, and show respect for others.

#6

The Honored Society understands that people don’t change, which is why rules are so important. They understand that everything dies, passes away, and nothing lasts forever. They know that journalists start out wanting to change the world and end up wanting to be editor in chief.

#7

The rules of the Honored Society are meant to control everyone. The society knows you can have money, power, and pussy, but it also knows that the person who is capable of giving up everything is the one who decides everyone else’s fate.

#8

The police officer told me that the young man had asked him, So am I betraying the organization now, letting you listen to this. The officer insisted that I write about it.

#9

I couldn't sleep. I was contacted to write the story of a story of a story, which turned out to be the training lesson about how to be in the world that the Italian bosses gave their Mexican and Latin American recruits.

#10

The story of the gomeros is one that will always stay with me. It was there that I learned the meaning of courage, and the meaning of cowardice. The fields were burned, but not suddenly. It was a slow burn, row by row, fire contaminating fire.

#11

The old man told Don Arturo that animals have courage and know what it means to defend life. Men brag about courage, but all they know how to do is obey, crawl, and get by.

#12

The United States needed morphine for war, so it asked Mexico to increase its opium production. The Mexican government agreed in exchange for a hefty cut of the opium. Arturo agreed to smuggle a portion of the opium out of Mexico for the Americans.

#13

The story of Kiki is a prime example of how not to become a narc. After the Kiki ordeal, Arturo decided to go back to growing grain. He abandoned opium and the men who dealt in heroin and morphine.

#14

The story of Kiki is