NAPLES — Exposing the secrets of the Neapolitan Mafia, known as the Camorra, is not a young man’s game.

Roberto Saviano, author of the international best-seller "Gomorrah," a book about the group, is learning that the hard way.

"I want a life. I want a home. I want to fall in love. I’m only 28 years old for [expletive] sake," Saviano said last week in an interview with La Repubblica, one of Italy’s leading daily newspapers. He also said he was considering leaving Italy following another recent death threat.

Since writing the book, Saviano has been in hiding and under police protection. Media reports last week said the Naples Anti-Mafia Bureau was looking into an informant’s claim that Camorra operatives planned to have Saviano killed by Christmas. That the informant reportedly recanted the claim is cold comfort.

Although he remains under police protection, recent events in bella Napoli may leave Saviano feeling ominously like a ghost writer.

In June, an Italian businessman working with police to break up waste disposal rackets run by organized crime gangs in Naples was executed in broad daylight in the town center of Casal di Principe, home to the Casalesi crime family prominently featured in Saviano’s book.

The September murders of six African immigrants and an Italian resident in nearby Castel Volturno prompted the Italian government to add 400 more local police along with a deployment of 500 military troops to patrol neighborhoods where Camorra operatives do business.

News reports on the killing of 60-year-old Stanislao Cantelli outside a Casal di Principe social club the day after the deployment began did little to instill confidence that the added presence would keep anyone safe.

Cantelli was reportedly the uncle of two Mafia informers currently under police protection.

Since the publication of "Gomorrah" in 2006, Saviano is easily the Camorra’s most valued target.

The book has since been translated into more than 40 languages with international sales reported in excess of a million copies. "Gomorrah" has also been made into a movie that took second place at the Cannes film festival this year and is a contender for next year’s Oscar awards.

The New York Times described "Gomorrah" as "the most important book to come out of Italy in years."

Most writers only dream of this level of acclaim. But in this case, every accolade increases Saviano’s vulnerability.

Several prestigious writers including Salman Rushdie — whose 1988 "The Satanic Verses" garnered him a fatwa courtesy of Ayatollah Khomeini — and Umberto Eco have implored the Italian government to protect Saviano.

With two months until Christmas, and his head high on the Camorra wish list, Italy may have to become a distant memory for Saviano.