Robert Harris is writer of great skill, with a penchant for writing compelling page turns about historical persons and events— Pompeii and the Cicero trio of novels come to mind. In Conclave, he turns his hands to the complex subject of Papal elections. Conclave, from the Latin ‘with the key’, refers to the locking of the cardinals into the Sistine Chapel to vote for a new Pope, the old one having died. For about 400 pages this novel keeps you in suspense, with many twists and turns and surprises. And the ending is a corker!! No one is likely to see that one coming. I quite literally could not put this novel down. I gobbled it up in about a day. This novel came out exactly two years ago and somehow I missed until now. Better late than never.
Harris is noted for his attention to detail, in this case detailed research on all the intricacies of electing a Pope. To his great credit, he portrays these Catholic men as they are— many of them persons of deep Christian faith, and some of them quite ambitious to be the most powerful spiritual leader in the world. It is a believable blend of humility and ego, of pride and prejudice, of love and devotion, of faith and doubt that we find in the characters in this novel. Particularly winsome is the portrayal of the lead figure through whose eyes the whole story is seen and told— Jacopo Lomeli, the Dean of the College, and person in charge of running the election. In the process he must be a detective searching out secrets that would disqualify this or that candidate. He must confront egos, and bruise them if necessary…. and he must fend off the pleas that he consider himself to be a candidate for Pope. I found his portrayal totally believable.
As summer reads go, this is great one, and if you have any hankering to understand the inner works of the Catholic Church and the papacy in particular— this is a must novel for you. Five stars……!
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