Libri di Simon Sebag Montefiore migliori da leggere e consigliati

‘One of the great love stories of history, in a league with Napoleon and Josephine, and Antony and Cleopatra … Excellent, with dazzling mastery of detail and literary flair’ Economist It was history’s most successful political partnership – as sensual and fiery as it was creative and visionary. Catherine the Great was a woman of notorious passion and imperial ambition. Prince Potemkin – wildly flamboyant and sublimely talented – was the love of her life and her co-ruler. Together they seized Ukraine and Crimea, defining the Russian empire to this day. Their affair was so tumultuous that they negotiated an arrangement to share power, leaving Potemkin free to love his beautiful nieces, and Catherine her young male favourites. But these ‘twin souls’ never stopped loving each other. Drawing on their intimate letters and vast research, Simon Sebag Montefiore’s enthralling, widely acclaimed biography restores these imperial partners to their rightful place as titans of their age.

From the master storyteller and internationally bestselling author – the story of humanity from prehistory to the present day, told through the one thing all humans have in common: family. We begin with the footsteps of a family walking along a beach 950,000 years ago. From here, Montefiore takes us on an exhilarating epic journey through the families that have shaped our world: the Caesars, Medicis and Incas, Ottomans and Mughals, Bonapartes, Habsburgs and Zulus, Rothschilds, Rockefellers and Krupps, Churchills, Kennedys, Castros, Nehrus, Pahlavis and Kenyattas, Saudis, Kims and Assads. A rich cast of complex characters form the beating heart of the story. Some are well-known leaders, from Alexander the Great, Attila, Ivan the Terrible and Genghis Khan to Hitler, Thatcher, Obama, Putin and Zelensky. Some are creative, from Socrates, Michelangelo and Shakespeare to Newton, Mozart, Balzac, Freud, Bowie and Tim Berners-Lee. Others are lesser-known: Hongwu, who began life as a beggar and founded the Ming dynasty; Kamehameha, conqueror of Hawaii; Zenobia, Arab empress who defied Rome; King Henry of Haiti; Lady Murasaki, first female novelist; Sayyida al-Hurra, Moroccan pirate-queen. Here are not just conquerors and queens but prophets, charlatans, actors, gangsters, artists, scientists, doctors, tycoons, lovers, wives, husbands and children. This is world history on the most grand and intimate scale – spanning centuries, continents and cultures, and linking grand themes of war, migration, plague, religion, medicine and technology to the people at the centre of the human drama. As spellbinding as fiction, The World captures the story of humankind in all its joy, sorrow, romance, ingenuity and cruelty in a ground-breaking, single narrative that will forever shift the boundaries of what history can achieve.

Gerusalemme è la città universale, la capitale di due popoli, il santuario di tre religioni. È stata il gioiello ambito dagli imperi, il luogo indicato dalle profezie per il giorno del Giudizio e il campo di battaglia dello scontro di civiltà della nostra epoca. Quale mistero e quali eventi hanno fatto di questa cittadina sperduta su un altopiano dei monti della Giudea, stretta tra il Mediterraneo e il Mar Morto, la Città Santa per i fedeli del Libro, il «centro del mondo» e la chiave per la pace in Medio Oriente? Da re Davide a Barack Obama, dalla nascita del giudaismo all’annuncio di Cristo fino al sorgere dell’islam, dal sionismo al conflitto israelopalestinese, Gerusalemme ripercorre l’epopea di tremila anni di fede, massacri, fanatismo e pacifica convivenza. Grazie a una narrazione avvincente e a uno stile che coniuga le necessità descrittive dello specialista con il gusto per l’excursus e l’aneddoto, Simon Sebag Montefiore svela i mille volti di una città in perenne mutamento e le sue diverse incarnazioni, restituendoci ogni epoca e ogni personaggio nella loro vivida lucentezza. Attingendo a nuove fonti d’archivio e alle conoscenze più recenti, oltre che ai documenti di famiglia e a un’intera vita di studi e ricerca, Montefiore getta luce su questioni essenziali per comprendere la città e rievoca ambienti, sentimenti e passioni di Gerusalemme, trasmettendo al lettore gli strumenti – i fatti – per interpretarne le tragedie, di ieri e oggi, ma anche il giusto disincanto per non smarrirsi nelle sue inestricabili contraddizioni. Per capire come Gerusalemme sia diventata la sola città al mondo che vive da sempre in due dimensioni, quella celeste e quella terrena.