The Eighth Wonder of the World

This is a the masterful new novel by the author of San Remo Drive and King of the Jews. An American architect wins a competition to build a monument for Mussolini and, in the course of attempting to complete it against myriad obstacles, loses his family, his country, and perhaps even his mind. The book is also about the architect's devoted protege, a young American scholar who must choose between his devotion to his master and to his fellow Jews, who are endangered by Mussolini and his close ties to the Nazis. The book's scope is immense, stretching from the Ethiopia of the Queen of Sheba to the Ethiopia that the Duce conquers in 1936, and on to the Italy of our own day.