The Lost Pope
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- $23.99
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- $23.99
Publisher Description
In this action-packed thriller, a Harvard theology professor uncovers religious and papal history—and plenty of conspiracy.
Cal Donovan, a theology professor at Harvard, receives an urgent message from a former graduate student, Samia Tedros. Now a museum conservator in Cairo, Samia has discovered a miraculous fragment of papyrus with three unknown lines from the Gospel of Mary Magdalene so explosive that a wealthy man is willing to kill to ensure no one ever sees it.
At the Vatican, another drama is developing. The new Pope has defied centuries of tradition and appointed a nun, Sister Elisabetta Celestino, as his secretary of state. Powerful insiders are outraged that a woman now sits as the second most influential person at the Vatican, and they plot to destroy her.
When Samia shows up at Cal’s doorstep in the dead of night, he is drawn into a deadly competition to possess a papyrus with the power to rescue Sister Elisabetta and change the course of Christianity.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Cooper's clichéd sixth novel featuring Harvard religion professor Cal Donovan (after 2022's The Fourth Prophecy) centers on yet another discovery that could upend the Catholic Church. After Jesus's crucifixion, Mary Magdalene fled to Egypt, where her teachings were recorded on a papyrus scroll that was later stolen. Papyrus restoration expert Samia Tedros discovers previously unseen fragments of Mary's gospel, and she shares her find with Donovan, whose close friend, Rodrigo Da Silva, has just been elected Pope John XXIV. The new pontiff names Elisabetta Celestino, a beautiful nun whom Donovan had hoped would renounce the veil and marry him, as the Vatican's first-ever female secretary of state, outraging conservative members of the church, who are determined to oust her. Before long, Donovan is tracking down Mary Magdalene's long-lost papyrus in a far-fetched attempt to protect Elisabetta. Cooper's plotting is too goofy to swallow, and rough prose ("Cal capitalized on the unexpected pleasure of being alone with her to open this chess match of the heart with a gambit he'd been contemplating") makes matters worse. This is a letdown.
