The Pawn

Rome, 1827. At the door of the Pontecorvo house, in the heart of the Jewish ghetto, a papal commissioner knocks. By order of the Holy Office, little David, baptised in secret, is snatched away from his family. His abduction, however, is not only a religious matter: behind it lie power games and political intrigues that undermine the delicate balances of the Vatican and culminate in an excellent murder, inside a cardinal’s palace. La pedina is an extraordinary fresco of the papal city, shaken by the first Risorgimento tremors and populated by cardinals and delinquents, nuns and prostitutes, rabbis and adventurers, whose vicissitudes are intertwined with History.

The novel freely inspired by the Mortara case at the centre of Marco Bellocchio’s film Rapito

‘When we are struck by misfortune, it seems that life no longer makes sense. But each of us has a destiny to fulfil…’