This is a story based in fact, of a decent hardworking bloke from an underprivileged part of Italy who became involved in drug trafficking. It plotted his rise and fall in the trade, experiencing fabulous wealth and also distressing experiences. Eventually he c9mcludes a peaceful, less well paid less dissolute lifestyle is better than one of excess where he had to watch his back every minute and feared for his life on many occasions. A salutary tale.

The Rise and Fall of an Italian Drug Lord

Based on the true story of a boy from Salerno. Donato lived in the slums of Salerno when at eighteen he left with little in his pocket and a debt to repay. By twenty he was sentenced to three years in a Manhattan Detention Center and from then on, his life spirited out of control, from a small drug operator to a master in brokering kilos of cocaine into Italy, Spain even Australia. He made friends also enemies…When the situation got hot, he bailed out. Donato was the one who walked away clean, his close friends died, in prison or were extradited…

Fabio Amato tells his remarkable story, a journey through the dangerous world of international drug trafficking. He brings his voice, experiences and reflections to us his audience. From the heights of the underworld to confronting his choices to rebuild his life made a very humbling and honest account.

Aka Montana, the moniker giving to Donato, is a raw, honest and powerful account of crime, resilience and how someone can do an about turn and change.

Of course, the story highlights criminal activities at its best: drug trafficking and substance abuse, lots of violence and murder. We will see betrayal and manipulation and emotional distress….all activities eventually ends with law enforcement on someone’s tail…..

The tempo is steady and the cadence was perfect to have kept my full attention till the very last page…. Depiction of the players was up to par and I enjoyed every bit of them even if Donato and his buddies were criminals.

This story is well-said and well-done. Kudos for sharing, this was a very enjoyable read.

I was looking into this book to see if I wanted to read it and somehow researched the completely wrong book!. But it was a happy accident. I really enjoyed this. It is definitely a topic I know very little about. I felt that it was well written. Overall it was enjoyable.

My thanks to Net Galley, Book Whisperer and the personal invitation I received to review this arc.

Not a typical book I would choose , but gave it a try and really enjoyed. Young Donato enters the world of drug trafficking. You see his growth as a teen to a major player surrounded by death but with a conscious to those he loves. Good gripping read.

5/5 stars

This is a cold open that grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go. Five police cars, blue lights, a foot pressed to the floor on an empty grey road—then the story rewinds to show how Donato got there. At eighteen he leaves Salerno with $35 and a family debt. By twenty, he’s inside the Manhattan Metropolitan Detention Center. By his late twenties, he’s no longer small-time. He’s the one moving kilos into Naples, Rome, and Milan, with lines running from Venezuelan jungles to Serie A locker rooms.

The brilliance here is the body count that isn’t Donato’s. Marco died. Javier lost to cancer. Carlos extradited to Santo Domingo. Alejandro rotting in Colombian maximum-security. And Donato? He walked away clean. That single line lands like a gunshot.

Taut, cinematic, and stripped of romance, this reads like Gomorrah collides with The Wolf of Wall Street—but with ice in its veins. No glorification, no apologies. Just the calculus of survival in a world where everyone else becomes a casualty. If the rest of the book sustains this tension and moral clarity, it’s going to be a scorcher.

A propulsive, unflinching look at the cost of rising and the luck of getting out.