In the early hours of an August morning a gunfight broke out in an Italian restaurant in Duisburg; in less than five minutes over seventy shots were fired into the bodies of six men. Both victims and assassins were members of the 'Ndrangheta crime organization; Calabria's Mafia had extended the savage tentacle of its influence outside Italy for the first time. For the men of the 'Ndrangheta, time is still measured in hour-glasses and honour may only be washed with blood. Petra Reski dispels the Hollywood romance surrounding the Mafia to reveal the huge and menacing force lurking everywhere - from street corner to parliament offices, construction site to corporate headquarters - and involved in everything from petty extortion to the disposal of nuclear waste. Reski's searing portrait of the criminals who have come to control not only Italy but vast swathes of Europe, is a journalistic tour de force.

Italy has been, and remains, a dream destination for many tourists. Travellers to the country enjoy its cultural history, beaches, climate, and wonderful food, but if one looks behind the beautiful backdrop of the historical old cities and magnificent landscapes, one often encounters the other side of Italy: citizens’ dissatisfaction with their own country, poverty, chaos, environmental pollution, the mafia, and violence, as well as a corrupt, decadent political system. In his journeys from the south to the north of the country, the photographer Christian Jungeblodt (*1962), who lived in Italy for a long time himself, makes the closeness of beauty and ugliness, luster and squalor, grandeur and the abyss visible. Essays by renowned authors like Petra Reski and John Hooper accompany this photo book with its wealth of colour photographs and black-and-white smartphone photos. Text in English and Italian.

In the early hours of an August 2007 morning a gunfight broke out in an Italian restaurant in Duisburg, Germany; in less than five minutes over seventy shots were fired into the bodies of six men. Both the victims and the assassins were members of the 'Ndrangheta crime organization. Calabria's Mafia had brazenly shown its savage influence outside Italy for the first time.
In "The Honored Society" award-winning investigative reporter Petra Reski reveals the Mafia menace lurking throughout the world-- from espresso bars in Palermo to European halls of parliament to the corporate headquarters of enormous agricultural firms. In haunting and exquisite prose she explores the Byzantine structure of the 'Ndrangheta, Cosa Nostra and other mafia clans throughout Italy -- the code they live by, the destruction they wreak, how they operate within the country and how they operate internationally. She shows how these syndicates dominate everything from nuclear waste disposal to hotel chains to the marijuana trade in Australia and cocaine trafficked throughout the world. Reski shows how figures such as Silvio Berlusconi were made by the Mafia, and how those who dared to defy its codes were broken. A searing portrait of the criminals who have come to control not only Italy but vast swathes of the globe, "The Honored Society" is a journalistic tour de force.