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This is not an advertisement-goal post.
Starting on the right foot, Lobook is an episodic initiative that I decided to launch by creating a very simple logo. As usual, and I stress it, it will only deal with my experience, nothing more.
What does it consist of? I'll summarize it like this, with the key steps of the process.
I get a book, usually buying or borrowing it. I read it. I take some illustrative photos to add as attachments. I provide a brief introduction and my personal opinion. In short, basically a blog like many of those that provide reviews. My vision, however, is more focused on providing a general and very concise idea of the book I have read, focusing little or nothing on anticipations of the plot and focusing more on my personal buying and reading experience.
This episode takes inspiration from the Glenn Cooper novel with the original title The Debt (2017). The italian translation is Il Debito, curated by Barbara Ronca: it's this the one I read. In the photo below you can see a cover image from which I have removed some parts trying to avoid possible direct advertisements.
Like the previous time, I purchased the book in paperback format, a format that allows access to the book for a sum suitable for almost any budget.
Excluding various discounts applied and instead considering only the official cover price, the price range with which it's possible to find this physical book in Italy varies approximately between € 5,00 and € 22,00. The cheaper editions are the pocket-sized softcover ones, while the hardcover editions raise the price to the maximum I have reported. At the moment, it seems all the formats are anyway in a pocket-size version.
Unlike other Glenn Cooper novels, this time the abstract element is less fanciful: everything revolves around a debt; a debt with ancient roots stipulated by the leaders of the Church in less recent times. From there, it unfolds into a classic thriller, mixing historical environments with the most modern. Lacking the cue that aims at the supernatural, the esoteric, or science fiction, it is closer to a detective story than previous novels.
Reading was enjoyable. Although less "fantasy" than other titles, the plot is discreetly woven. It also involved me enough, although I got a little lost in the last third of the book: but it is more due to me than to the author.
This time I don't want to reveal anything more, to give a more precise face I should enter the spoiler: this isn't my goal. Let's move on to the final grade and the description on the cover.
Below, you can see the photos with the back of the Italian cover, from which I took the descriptive text you can find in the various online libraries. I add an English translation immediately below: to get it faster, I use an online Optical Character Recognitor (OCR) and an online translator.
"Maybe it's not heaven, but for Cal Donovan, Professor of History of Religion, it's as if it were. To thank him for his crucial role in the case of the priest with the stigmata, Pope Celestine VI granted Cal an extraordinary privilege: unlimited access to the Vatican Library and the Vatican Secret Archives. And Cal immediately takes advantage of this for his research on an obscure Italian cardinal who lived in the mid-nineteenth century. And this is how he comes across a private letter from the Secretary of State of the time, referring to a banker and the need to move him out of Rome in great secrecy. That strange story attracts him like a magnet. However, he cannot imagine that, from the yellowed pages, a disconcerting fact will emerge: a huge debt - never repaid - secretly contracted by the Church with a bank managed by a Jewish family. Neither can he foresee Celestino's surprising request: to find evidence that that debt is still valid. But what will the pope's real intentions be?"
The personal rating system is still in its infancy. Since I rely primarily on my involvement and not on the quality of the texts, this is the fundamental parameter that guides my first vote. The second is a vote - once again personal - which takes into account how I received the quality of the novel. I will call the first vote with the title INVOLVEMENT Vote, the second as GENERAL Vote. The grading scale for both will be a number between 1 (worst rating) and 5 (best rating), represented as stars (1 to 5).
To Il Debito, I give 3 stars to the General Vote and 4 stars for the Involvement Vote.
If this article has intrigued you, you can find info by online searching for news of the author, or contacting retailers in the sector. I greet you, and I hope I have left a useful opinion. I will periodically publish other articles of this kind. If you are interested in discovering new books - mainly novels - on the market, you can continue to follow me on the #lobook tag. CLICK HERE if you want to access the collection of posts I publish under this tag. At the moment the number of published posts is very small, but I hope to expand the index over time.
