Francis: Life and Revolution A Biography of Jorge Bergoglio

A bestseller in its original Argentinian, Francis: Life and Revolution paints an intimate portrait of Jorge Bergoglio by Elisabetta Piqué, a journalist who is also a close friend of the man who became the 266th and current Pope. The warm, personal narrative is rich in character and evocation of the subject and biographer’s shared Argentinian heritage, making this unique among books about Bergoglio.Piqué tells the story of his upbringing, and journey through priesthood to the Vatican, the Curia and ultimately to his election as Pope. Her text includes her phone conversations with Bergoglio in the days preceding the announcement, his fears and modest denials when she told him she believed it would be him, and a fascinating never-before-reported account of the deliberations of the Conclave that elected him.Before analysing the innovations and the polemic changes driven by the new Pope, the book tells of a good natured and kind man with a wonderful sense of humour married to strong convictions who risked his own life to help the victims of illegal repression in Argentina.Elisabetta Piqué is correspondent in Italy and the Vatican for La Nación, one of Buenos Aires’s main newspapers, and was the only journalist to forecast the election of Jorge Bergoglio as the new Pope. Besides travelling with Pope Francis during his first international trip to Brazil, she travelled regularly with John Paul II and Benedict XVI. She is married to Irish journalist Gerry O’Connell, the recently-announced Vatican correspondent for America Magazine.