Conclave - Robert Harris - Book Review

 

                I am reading more of Robert Harris this year. Mainly due to my interest in historical fiction. Finding this book at the library, I wanted to try the novel out as this looked different from what I usually expect from Robert Harris. When I came across this book, the curiosity to see what transpires made me go for this book.

                The incumbent Pope is no more. Now the race is on to see who will be the next Pope. Cardinals from all over the world have come over. Some eligible contenders are vying to become the Pope. The holy men are powerful and some of them are rivals to each other. All the cardinals are locked in the Sistine Chapel for the elections where they will be remaining until the next Pope is selected. But all is not what it seems from the outside. Who gets elected as the new pope forms the rest of the story amidst much politics and backstabbing.

                I expected the novel to be slow and tiring but surprisingly it was engaging enough for me. Having read a few other books by Robert Harris, this was a surprising novel for me. Being a non-Christian; it did take me some time to understand some of the terms, customs and rituals. I had to spend some time googling and understanding the same in parallel to read this book. So, it did take me some time to finish the same. It was interesting to see how corruption prevails even in the house of God. But equally present are holy souls who cater to justice. I really liked the central character through whose eyes the story travels. The electoral proceedings were shown in detail which was interesting and gave a more clear picture of what I had seen on the television. Locking all the cardinals brought a lot of characters together in the story. But the story proceeds in a fluid way and the writer succeeds in keeping us turning the pages. It was very interesting to see that faith does have many faces and how it can be interpreted and tested even among the holy men. But, at certain places, I felt there was a bit of redundancy which did dull the reading. But that is just a minor issue as it was engaging mostly.

                Shortly said, this was an unexpectedly good read for me. I started reading expecting something but this turned out to be a pretty neat read. For book lovers, this is a good one-time page-turner.