Conclave: A novel (Unabridged)
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4.3 • 107 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
The best-selling author of Enigma and Fatherland turns to today's Vatican in a ripped-from-the-headlines novel, and gives us his most ambitious, page-turning thriller yet--where the power of God is nearly equaled by the ambition of men.
The pope is dead. Behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel, one hundred and eighteen 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.
Customer Reviews
So Many Questions!
I saw the movie first, then wanted to read the book, hoping for clarity on the ending. If anything, I have more questions now. Both the book and (so fittingly) the movie feel as though they end abruptly, as if, in the end, none of it matters. If anything, this is a commentary on the absolute lack of sex education by the church. Surely that would have given this poor family a clue that something was amiss. Although, I suppose it is also a commentary on the folly of taking physical attributes at birth as the authority on who a person actually is.
The ending ruined it
I enjoyed the promise of this novel, but its gravitas declined as it progressed. I guessed the secret of the novel early on because the author hinted, vaguely, and because I’m an old transsexual. Then at the end, the material was conveyed in an unrealistic manner. I didn’t buy it at all. It couldn’t have happened that way, that the new pope wouldn’t have known his sex more clearly earlier in life. He was never a bumpkin in a remote land without learning, without books, and he was not stupid. This—detachment—from reality was simply not a realistic possibility, as were other areas of the book. The author copped out.