First published 2018
Pope Pius XI sits dying in his Vatican office, his walking stick propped against the wall beside relics from his mountain climbing days. The frail pontiff knows his end approaches, yet he believes God keeps him alive for one final purpose. He has summoned all of Italy's bishops to Rome for February 11, 1939, exactly ten years after he signed the Lateran Treaty with Mussolini. That agreement ended decades of hostility between Italy and the Catholic Church, but it also made the Church a willing partner in Mussolini's fascist government. Now, as fascism spreads across Europe, the Pope prepares to deliver a message that could shatter this alliance. The meeting will take place in St. Peter's Basilica, where the aging pontiff must find the strength to speak truths that may cost everything he has built with the Italian dictator.
Genres: biography, history, 20th-century, political-science
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: based-on-true-events, enemies-to-lovers
Setting: Vatican, Italy, Europe
Period: 1939
560 pages · Paperback · Ayrıntı Yayınları