Roberto Saviano has been living undercover since his book Gomorrah was published three years ago. It is an inconvenient book for some people, and Saviano has paid a heavy price. He walks around with seven carabinieri, frequently changes residence, and has no private life to speak of. Because of his book.

This is a man who has rendered a great and necessary service to his people, a man who has the courage to speak unequivocally about the cancer devouring his country. But Saviano’s message doesn’t stop there. His message goes beyond Naples, beyond Italy, beyond Europe (the Camorra has its tentacles all over the place) to the world. It is a message of liberty in the face of terrorism.

Last night on the Italian program Che tempo che fa, Roberto Saviano was given a two-hour platform to have his say. He was flanked by novelists Paul Auster and David Grossman, and (in New York) Indian writer Suketu Mehta, author of Maximum City. What brought all these writers together was perhaps an enemy common to all: terror.