Books in English by writers from Vatican City are hard to find, so these two are wider picks: books by long-time residents, outsiders who know the place well, folk tales and history with a strong feel for Vatican City.
Vatican City's writing is mostly official and scholarly, from papal documents to the manuscripts of its Apostolic Library, rather than novels by residents. The library dates from the fifteenth century, and the newspaper L'Osservatore Romano has appeared since 1861. Official texts are often in Latin, with Italian used in much daily business. Very little by people living inside the walls has reached English, so readers meet the place through outsiders.
John Thavis's The Vatican Diaries draws on decades reporting from Rome to show the papal household, press operations and rivalries in the Curia, the Church's central administration. Thomas J. Reese's Inside the Vatican explains how its offices make decisions. Robert Harris's Conclave confines a papal election to the Sistine Chapel and Casa Santa Marta, and Morris West's The Shoes of the Fisherman takes a new pope through protocol and Cold War isolation.
By long-time residents and outsiders who know the place well, or folk tales, poetry and history with a strong feel for Vatican City.
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A papal election unfolds entirely within Vatican walls, conveying the rituals, secrecy and architecture of the Sistine Chapel and Casa Santa Marta.
Follows a newly elected pope through the Vatican's hierarchy, protocol and isolation during the Cold War.
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