Not yet 30, Roberto Saviano has achieved what other writers only dream of: an acclaimed bestseller, which he has adapted into an Oscar-tipped film.
But he lives in hiding, with only armed policemen for company. Gangsters from his native city of Naples have passed a death sentence on him.
He has incurred their wrath after writing an expose of the Camorra, the Neapolitan equivalent of the Sicilian Mafia.
Saviano's Gomorrah, a pun at the expense of the gangs and their biblical wrongdoing, has turned an unwelcome spotlight on their activities.
A police wiretap on a gang boss in his prison cell detected the threat against the writer.
Officers are treating it as credible, including its nauseating addenda that the hit should be carried out by Christmas, if at all possible. ...
He also received a word of advice from a British author who knows a thing or two about going into hiding over a book.
"I met Salman Rushdie in New York and he told me a wonderful thing I have never forgotten, a truly important thing, how to come through this situation. 'Freedom is in your mind, if you lose it once, you have lost it forever. Keep it and you will be free.'"
As an aside, legendary South African singer and anti-apartheid activist Miriam Makeba died performing at a concert in support of Saviano.