Ransom Kidnapping in Italy

This book analyses the media, cultural, and testimonial narratives of ransom kidnapping in Italy, a phenomenon linked to banditry and organized crime that terrorized the country for decades.

Alessandra Montalbano is an associate professor of Italian at the University of Alabama.

Robin Pickering-Iazzi, Professor of Italian and Comparative Literature, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee:
“This gripping analysis of ransom kidnapping brings to light the astonishing roles played by the mafias, the Italian state, and citizens committed to civil society, and thus performs a remarkable paradigm shift for understanding Italian history, society, and politics from the 1970s through to the 1990s. Essential reading for anyone interested in Italian history and culture, trauma and memory studies, organized crime, and social justice.”

Stephanie Malia Hom, Associate Professor of Transnational Italian Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara :
“Ransom Kidnapping in Italy is a brilliant and necessary study of a dynamic phenomenon that has indelibly shaped and scarred modern Italian society. Alessandra Montalbano reveals the practice of abduction to be more than a political statement or terrorist act; she illuminates how ransom kidnapping served as a business tool for enterprising members of the ‘Ndrangheta mafia and how these horrific acts of violence inflicted a sustained, collective trauma on Italians across generations. Long marginalized in studies of organized crime, ransom kidnapping in Italy finally gets the vital study that is due with Montalbano’s book.”