Things are changing in Rome. The new Pope, determined to bring radical reform to the Vatican, proclaims an extraordinary Jubilee year, one "of Mercy." A new center-left government replaces its disgraced predecessor. And with crime lynchpin Samurai in jail, his prote ge Sebastiano Laurenti attempts to establish himself as the designated successor. But he must reckon not only with a new generation of enterprising gangsters and racketeers--out to carve for themselves a slice of the profits and opportunities offered by the major public works planned for the Jubilee--but also with ambitious newly elected politician, Chiara Visone. Betrayals, ambushes and infighting will inevitably alter the fragile political balance in the Eternal City. As the sharks circle, some tenuous hope endures in the unlikely alliance of an incorruptible politician of the old left and a young bishop who refuses to play the Vatican's power games. But it remains to be seen whether, in the long night of Rome, there is room for redemption. --

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