“The mouth of the volcano is always the same, where the earth smokes the most: a dusty, white escarpment surrounded by dozens of buildings. The ancient peoples who first settled along the Phlegraean coast told that here Hades sought refuge after abducting the beautiful Proserpina.”

It is in these places, on the shores of Lake Avernus, that the devils responsible for the Castel Volturno massacre find shelter, when on September 18, 2008, seven African immigrants fell under a hail of bullets, victims of the clan’s racial hatred. Orchestrating the San Gennaro slaughter was one of the most bloodthirsty bosses of the Casalesi: a message to the entire community to bring it under his control.

The perpetrators were criminals disguised as policemen; the martyrs, young Ghanaians unconnected with any illicit activity. Of them, only one boy would survive, for a few years more: with a bullet lodged in his body and the nightmare of that night seared into his mind. Their names would be reconstructed with precision only years later, and soon forgotten—just like all the innocent immigrants who still today struggle to survive amid ruthless exploitation and violent gangmasters.

In a land where myth sprouts from the sulfurous earth, where the mafia itself has “rural” roots and governs everything according to the law of the strongest, this book tells the story of the obsession that turns men into devils and makes every atrocity possible. Antonio Castaldo has written an original and compelling narrative investigation of a long season of blood shed by the most brutal Neapolitan Camorra: an emotional personal account, a declaration of love for true journalism, an epic journey through places steeped in ancient stories under the guidance of the poet Virgil, between legendary and real events—the Phlegraean Fields, the gateway to the Underworld just a handful of kilometers from Naples.