Five books to read that bring Naples to life

By Christine Berberich, Reader in Literature, University of Portsmouth

Napoli, or Naples for English speakers, is my favourite city. It’s a city of stark contrasts – glorious architecture competing with multi-layered graffiti, hidden piazze surrounded by piled-up rubbish.

Naples might be the only place where, late in the evening, you can see a group of nuns carrying takeaway pizza back to their convent. It is, after all, the city where the pizza was invented. It has been reviled for its mafia clans while being deeply steeped in age-old superstitions, with polished skulls in countless crypts.

It is also the place where, twice a year, the entire…

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