Publishers of strong stories, stories of redemption through literature, books as bricks to build a better society, the Marotta & Cafiero list definitely ranks as civil fiction and non-fiction.
They have started with their neighborhood stories, stories born around the crime world, then expanding to the south of Italy and finally to the southern hemisphere.
Today Marotta & Cafiero are the publishers of books originating from over sixteen countries: books on the genocide in Rwanda, on the trafficking of slaves, on the Chilean revolution, on civil wars in Central Africa.
M&C was founded in Scampia in 2010. It was the year when the Camorra killed 114 people, 20 of which innocent victims. Nobody believed someone would open a publishing house there. They said that at Scampia no one was interested in reading, that they were in need of the army rather than the books.
The founders were 22 years old when they published their first book, the nearest bookstore was 10 kilometers away, 8 subway stops, you had to emigrate if you wanted to buy a book.
They had nothing, if not an impossible dream: to produce books in their neighborhood, work in their neighborhood, give the opportunity to children from their neighborhood to find a book nearby.
In 10 years M&C have published more than 100 books on certified recycled 0 Km. paper, blackmail money free books, with Creative License Commons, with price tag.
They proudly say they have become "Book Pushers", producers of redneck literature in Scampia. That where drugs were sold, today they are peddling books.
In Scampia they have published a Nobel Prize for Literature as Günter Grass, and books from all over the world. Those who were street urchins today participate in the most important publishing fairs in Italy, and have created jobs in a district with the highest unemployment rate in Naples.
Their catalogue is the result of their work.
