Gabriel Allon has slipped quietly into Venice for a much needed holiday with his wife and two young children. But when Pope Paul VII dies suddenly, Gabriel is summoned to Rome by the Holy Father's loyal private secretary, Archbishop Luigi Donati. A billion Catholic faithful have been told that the pope died of a heart attack. Donati, however, has two good reasons to suspect his master was murdered. The Swiss Guard who was standing watch outside the...

"Nine mesmerizing stories saturated in the details of Roman life that showcase Jhumpa Lahiri's extraordinary range and virtuosity"-- Rome--metropolis and monument, suspended between past and future, multi-faceted and metaphysical--is the protagonist, not the setting, of these nine the first short story collection by the Pulitzer Prize-winning master of the form since her number one New York Times best seller Unaccustomed Earth, and a major literary...

"From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Ruins and The Cold Millions comes a stunning collection about those moments when everything changes--for the better, for the worse, for the outrageous--as a diverse cast of characters bounces from Italy to Idaho, questioning their roles in life and finding inspiration in the unlikeliest places." -- We all live like we're famous now, curating our social media presences, performing our identities,...

Mark Lamprell's One Summer Day in Rome is an enchanting novel about three couples drawn irresistibly to Rome. Alice, an art student in New York City, has come to Rome in search of adventure and inspiration before settling down with her perfectly adequate fiancé. Meg and Alec, busy parents and successful business people from LA, are on a mission to find the holy grail, a certain blue tile that will make their home renovation complete but soon it becomes...

"Lucrezia Borgia is one of the most vilified figures in modern history. The daughter of a notorious pope, she was twice betrothed before the age of eleven and thrice married--one husband was forced to declare himself impotent and thereby unfit and another was murdered by Lucrezia's own brother, Cesar Borgia. She is cast in the role of murderess, temptress, incestuous lover, loose woman, femme fatale par excellence. But there is always more than one...

In Italy, an Austrian teacher devotes his energy to criticizing his family's noble heritage--its snobbery, hypocrisy, Catholicism, Nazism--but when on his parents' death he returns to take over the country estate, he does not practice what he preached. By the author of The Loser.