Roberto Saviano: “I don’t know if I’ll know how to be happy”
By Pilar Martín
Madrid, Jan 26 (EFE).- Roberto Saviano, who has been living under police protection for almost 16 years after exposing crimes of the Italian mafia Gomorrah, has published an autobiographic graphic novel that tells a story of a man who doesn’t know if he will know how to be happy.
The Italian journalist, who describes himself as the “confinement world champion” gave an interview to Efe in a room portrayed by the “I’m still alive” comic, made in collaboration with cartoonist Asaf Hanuka.
Question: Isn’t it very painful to think that what has happened to you since the publication of “Gomorrah” (2006) is normal?
Answer: Yes, exactly. On one hand, there are people who think that I am to blame for this life, or that if I really wanted to die, I would be dead. The other reminds you that I have chosen to have security.
Q: Why a graphic novel?
A: An autobiography has a tone, a style, which I did not want to face. I wanted to give my reader visibility, the image of what I have lived, the claustrophobia, through images.
Q: The comic starts and ends with your brother, has the family been a lifesaver?
A: Let’s say that my brother is the figure of my family, and I think that they have paid a very high price for my choices without having asked for it and without having agreed with them; I have made my choice and the consequences have also been paid by them. My brother has paid the consequences by always being with me.
Q: When we were confined due to Covid-19, we were able to experience what forced confinement is. What did you feel?
A: I am the world champion of confinement, when you lock yourself in your house and life goes on you have the feeling that you are missing out on life, but when we were confined life stopped. When it stopped for me it was very difficult.
Q: Will you know how to be happy when your nightmare is over?
A: It is a complicated question, the answer is that I will not know how to do it, although it is true that I cannot constantly bombard myself to find a way out, although I must find it. EFE
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