Bóveda 2014

In the year 1032, a twelve-year-old boy named Theophylactus of Tusculum becomes the youngest pope in history — and perhaps the most despised: Benedict IX, raised to the Papal Court through intrigue and bribery.

Considered by many to be a libertine who practiced sorcery and consorted with prostitutes, he is also a fearful and inexperienced youth, manipulated by the cardinals and bishops who surround him. Yet nothing will earn him more enemies than his determination to reform the Curia and eradicate Vatican corruption.

When Benedict IX realizes that only authority and violence can help him achieve his purpose, tragedy becomes inevitable.

In The Boy Pope, Peter Prange turns one of the darkest episodes in Church history into a gripping novel, confronting the reader with the same questions posed by one of its characters, Cardinal Xing: “Are appearances enough for us to judge others? Should we not strive to understand their actions as manifestations of divine providence?”