Fast-paced crime thriller set in Rome: Gomorrah meets House of Cards

Suburra will be released as a Netflix original series in 2017.

Criminals on the rise and senior members of the Italian mafia clash in and around Rome over the backing of an urban development bill that promises to turn the seaside town of Ostia into a gambling paradise. The problems plaguing the political system of contemporary Italy are played out against this florid, cinematic background.

Before the end of Berlusconi’s days, a massive real estate development bill that will bury the city’s outskirts under tons of cement remains on the floor in the Italian parliament. Ostia, a small dot of a town on the coast, could become Italy’s equivalent of Las Vegas with the passing of this renewal project. With Italian MPs either in their pockets or forced to vote because of blackmail or the kidnapping of a loved one, the mafia is set to cash-in on the future of this seaside retreat. The local bosses of Ostia however, tired of staying in their place, feel entitled to a larger cut. When the son of a feared Ostia gangster is brutally stabbed and left lifeless on the streets, the safeties come off and all-out war is sparked. Each vote for the bill, will either be caused by blood or bought by way of bribery.

The Italian film–directed by Stefano Sollima, who worked also on the Gomorrah TV series–was released earlier this year: “a terrific mob drama.”
—Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian

PRAISE

“...the period detail is impeccable, while the stark and gritty presentation of the many characters pays dividends in terms of verisimilitude. This belated English translation by Antony Shugaar is rich and idiomatic.”—Barry Forshaw in the FT on Romanzo Criminale (Corvus, 2015, 9780857893727)

“In Suburra, the incidents revealed by the Mafia Capitale investigation were already in large part recounted in the vivid and hard tones (here and there with a bit ‘splatter,’ à la Quentin Tarantino) of ‘fiction,’ but with the realistic breadth that captures a great city tragically ‘delivered’ to political, economic and criminal corruption.”—La Repubblica

Carlo Bonini
Carlo Bonini is a staff writer at the Italian national daily, La Repubblica.

Giancarlo De Cataldo
Giancarlo De Cataldo is the author of the bestselling novel, Romanzo Criminale, an essayist, the author of numerous TV screenplays, and a judge on the circuit court of Rome.

• Oct 23 2017
  ‘Suburra’: Why Netflix’s new show might be TV’s next great Mob drama
  — NME
• Oct 12 2017
  Narcos fans are highly recommending Netflix's latest Mafia epic
  — Joe
• Oct 12 2017
  Stop whatever you’re doing and watch Suburra
  — The Spectator
• Oct 2 2017
  Ten TV shows to watch in October
  — BBC.com
• Sep 24 2017
  Suburra is a razor-sharp political thriller set in Berlusconi's Rome
  — New Statesman
• Sep 20 2017
  To the Max: Maxim Jakubowski on Crime Fiction
  — Crime Time