Behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel, one hundred and twenty Cardinals from all over the globe will cast their votes in the world's most secretive election.
They are holy men. But they have ambition. And they have rivals.
Over the next seventy-two hours one of them will become the most powerful spiritual figure on earth.
Robert Harris is the author of ten bestselling novels: the Cicero Trilogy - Imperium, Lustrum and Dictator Fatherland, Enigma, Archangel, Pompeii, The Ghost, The Fear Index, and An Officer and a Spy, which won four prizes including the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction.
Several of his books have been filmed, most recently The Ghost, which was directed by Roman Polanski. His work has been translated into thirty-seven languages and he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He lives in West Berkshire with his wife, Gill Hornby.
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Really interesting this one. If you've ever been interested in knowing what literally goes on behind closed doors, then this is the book for you. The closed doors of the Sistine Chapel when the world is locked out and the new pope elected.
There really are some fascinating insights into the process and buildings of the Vatican. I've been inside the Sistine Chapel but obviously not been in a real conclave but it read as very authentic and goes into the nooks and crannies of the buildings, the sleeping quarters and the conclave itself which however true, read as if you were there witnessing it all first hand.
The backdrop to the Vatican and the process of choosing the new Pope, the rules, procedures, traditions all weave in and out of a intriguing mystery and it felt very claustrophobic, secretive and very eerie at the same time. The whispers in the walls,the smoke rising up the chimney and the never ending twisting corridors.....I was enthralled.
A great mystery in such a significant setting - I felt as if I was where I shouldn't really be - and what a thrill that was!
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