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The Machiavelli Trilogy #1
by Franco Bernini
This meticulously researched and brilliantly told historical novel, the first of the Machiavelli trilogy, recounts the enigmatic life of Niccolò Machiavelli, revealing the complex man behind the infamous political strategist.
October 1502. As Cesare Borgia sets out to invade the Florentine Republic, Niccolò Machiavelli is sent to spy on him and to glean details of his nefarious plan. But when Borgia asks Machiavelli to write his life story, their bond gains complexity and nuance: ultimately, they both aspire to everlasting fame and to achieve it, they need each other, for the one's sword can only rule in eternity via the pen of the other.
Set against the backdrop of the Renaissance, rife with political intrigue and cultural flourishing, Bernini's richly imagined novel masterfully captures a society teetering on the brink of change and revolution, as one man takes his chance at greatness, navigating the treacherous corridors of power with guile and charisma.
The Throne is a captivating reflection on ambition, morality, and the pursuit of power and influence. As elucidating as Robert Caro's The Power Broker, as gripping and stylish as Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall, and as atmospheric as Maggie O'Farrell's The Marriage Portrait, The Throne reveals one of the most impactful and controversial minds in political history, and questions and asks to what lengths can one justifiably go to achieve greatness.
"Prose meets power in a tale of Machiavelli and Borgia...An engrossing and humane novel." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Well researched with wonderfully vivid details...The ultimate power, then, resides in words and those who know how to use them. Borgia and his armies fade away, but Machiavelli's books still belong on our shelves." —New York Journal of Books
"A story about manipulation and palace intrigue...It's also about the complicated relationship between a biographer and their subject, something kinda meta that historical fiction rarely delves into." —Cosmopolitan
"The Throne plunges the reader into the folds of history, among love affairs and court intrigues, outlining the portrait of one of the most illustrious figures of the Renaissance." —La bottega di Hamlin
"Machiavelli, as you've never read before." —ELLE Magazine (Italy)
This information about The Throne was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Franco Bernini's screenplay for The Grey Zone won the Grolla d'oro Prize for best screenplay at the 50th Cannes Film Festival.w. He teaches screenwriting at the Italian National Film School. He has written three novels and a collection of short stories. The Throne is his English-language debut.
Oonagh Stransky has been a translator of Italian literature for over 20 years. Some of the writers whose work she has brought into English include Domenico Starnone (The House on Via Gemito, Europa), Pier Paolo Pasolini, Carlo Lucarelli, Giuseppe Pontiggia, and Roberto Saviano. Stransky started studying Italian at Middlebury Language Schools in 1986, got her BA in Comparative Literature from Mills College and UC Berkeley in 1989, and her MA in Italian from Columbia University in 2002. She currently lives in Italy.
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