Italy

Franco Bernini

Franco Bernini’s screenplay for The Grey Zone won the Grolla d’oro Prize for Best Screenplay. 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.

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Latest reviews

“Captivating... Smartly voiced, briskly paced... The Throne paints a Machiavelli credibly embedded in his vibrant, vicious times—but capable as well of the flinty thoughts and words that would outlive them.”

— Wall Street Journal, Aug 10 2024

“Engrossing . . . set in an era whose notions of statecraft can seem even more rapacious than our own.”

— New York Times Book Review, Jul 20 2024

“Bernini’s engrossing historical novel follows Machiavelli’s trajectory through the corridors of power in 16th-century Italy.”

— Washington Post, Jun 1 2024

“If you loved Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, dive into The Throne, an Italian historical novel with the same verve of a thriller while bringing the past to life.”

— Parade Magazine, May 31 2024

“About the complicated relationship between a biographer and their subject, something kinda meta that historical fiction rarely delves into.”

— Cosmopolitan, Apr 24 2024

★ “Prose meets power in a tale of Machiavelli and Borgia...An engrossing and humane novel.”

— Kirkus Reviews, Apr 5 2024

“The ultimate power 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, Mar 25 2024