But the secrets prove so tame compared with the antics of some of their real -life counterparts that one is left thinking, well I've heard worse, and wondering why they're so mercilessly ejected off the ballot. On another day we visited Saint Peter’s Basilica and, as we were staying nearby, we often found ourselves wandering round the Piazza and the surrounding streets in the evening. Das Ende ist zugegebenermaßen nicht nur völlig unerwartet (ich war nicht in der Lage die Zeichen, die darauf hindeuteten, richtig zu interpretieren), sondern auch ein wenig fragwürdig. The book did its best to make the reader aware of what was going on, but even then it read a little like non-fiction when too much information was provided. The selected Pope had secrets too but why his was OK and others weren't was a puzzle of sorts to me.

It took me a while to realise it was vaguely set in a near future, so most of the current preoccupations of the Church and world events were still current.High” describes churches use of a number of liturgical, ceremonial, and traditional practices, often referred to by both High and Low adherents as “the bells and smells” associated with Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. I have read other books about the Conclave so I had the basics down but Harris made it sing in a way that other books haven't. Among the papabile there is Tedesco the traditionalist, Tremblay the ambitious North American and Adeyemi the African with strong views on the role of women and gay marriage.

As if this were not enough to occupy his time, as 117 confirmed cardinals have arrived for Conclave, a mysterious figure appears and makes he known that he, too, is a cardinal eligible to choose the next pontiff. A free paper on the bus or on the train is often unputdownable, while The Golden Bowl is almost unpickupable but ultimately worth the read. At the plate glass entrance to the Casa Santa Marta, the Swiss guard saluted, a white-gloved hand to a red-plumed helmet. Nothing is considered too insignificant for it to be excluded, including the poor quality of the catering that visitors to the Vatican must suffer. I found this a fascinating insight into the strange world of Vatican politics and a great political thriller.The writing and the characters were beautiful, I love how different cardinals were portrayed all with their own flaws and the traits of being more human than holy.

I cannot think of a novel that churned up so much political excitement in me or so flawlessly depicts this highly secretive event as a Conclave. This startling piece of news makes its way to the ears of Cardinal Lomeli in the early hours one October morning. Didn't expect so many revelations nor what extent some cardinals would to to hide offenses that would keep, them out of the running. A Lomeli, que pouco tempo antes requerera o seu afastamento da Cúria ao Santo Padre, alegando uma recente crise espiritual. I was on the edge of my seat in similar fashion to when I was watching the movie Lincoln, and they were voting on the Emancipation Proclamation.This is one of those books that is a slow but effective burner, the writing is good and the plot entertaining.

The men that litter this text are some of the most faithful and it was an interesting insight to how their religion was their life work and also the saviour of it. His work has been translated into thirty-seven languages and he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. If you think this sounds surprisingly similar to the plots of several other of Harris’s novels then you’d be right.But my money makes it both of these with distinct overtones of political satire and commentary directed firmly against religion in general and, more particularly, of course, against Roman Catholicism and its bleak history of misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia, anti-Semitism, greed, its attachment to the notions of patriarchal power retention, and (what else?