Conclave
by Robert Harris, Hutchinson, £20
Robert Harris’s new novel, Conclave, is set in the near future when, after the death of a pope bearing a remarkable resemblance to Pope Francis, the cardinals of the Universal Church gather in the Vatican to elect his successor.
Simply as a guide to the logistics and canonical procedures of a papal election, Conclave is outstanding. Harris, a journalist as well as a novelist, was given full access to the setting of his drama – the Sistine Chapel and the Casa Santa Marta, the Vatican guesthouse where the cardinals are immured for the duration. He has read many books, among them John Cornwell’s A Thief in the Night, and interviewed “a cardinal who participated in a conclave”.
