M: son of the century

An International Bestseller M. is a startling look into the fascist mindset, a portrait of unrelenting determination, and an impeccable work of historical fiction. He carries himself like an animal: acting instinctively, he bides his time, knowing his time is coming by the smell in the air. Italy is exhausted, tired of the political class, the inept moderates, and the agonizing machinations of a democracy that no longer seems to be working. And while the leaders of his country have sat idly in the safety of parliament, achieving nothing, he has risen to the top of the outsiders, the criminals, the arsonists and, most ferocious of all, the ideologically pure. He is a former socialist leader ousted by the party, a tireless political agitator, a director of a small opposition newspaper. He is Benito Mussolini. It would be a novel character if it weren''t the man who most blooded the body of Italy. Nothing of the drama of M is invented: nothing of what Mussolini says or thinks, nothing of the protagonists - D''Annunzio, Margherita Sarfatti - or the plethora of squadristi, Arditi, socialists, or anarchists. The result is one of the most impressive pieces of historical fiction ever written. Telling the story of Fascism, for the first time from within the mind of Mussolini himself, and without any political or ideological filter, Scurati reveals a reality that could so easily have been lost to history, and which so clearly threatens to resurface.