When it comes to adventure novels, perhaps seasoned with elements that weave together the most intriguing pages of our past with the darkest secrets to uncover, the bestseller books by American author Glenn Cooper inevitably come to mind, published in Italy by Nord (and by TEA in paperback).
The author, born in 1953 and hailing from New York City, after earning a degree in Archaeology at Harvard University had initially completed a PhD in Medicine and had become president of one of Massachusetts’ leading biotechnology companies. Yet, having many other interests, he soon began to dabble in screenplays and film productions, before taking up writing in 2009, when The Library of the Dead was released.
debut that climbed the bestseller lists and launched a highly successful literary career (Glenn Cooper’s books are translated into more than 30 languages and sold in millions of copies), during which the author has brought to the shelves works that are always unique in their kind.
And not only for the adventurous elements, the enchanting settings and the presence of real historical figures, but also for the philosophical themes explored within. Time and again, Glenn Cooper sheds light on some of humanity’s greatest mysteries, such as fate and predestination, the nature of evil, the intersection of science and faith, or the conception of life after death.
On the occasion of the release of his new novel, The Door of Destinies, we propose a journey through his narrative body of work, to discover the titles that have made him famous around the world…
The Library of the Dead Trilogy
Let us start right from Glenn Cooper’s debut, from which, between 2009 and 2012, a trilogy emerged, comprised of The Library of the Dead (translation by Gian Paolo Gasperi), The Book of Souls (translation by Gian Paolo Gasperi) and The Time of Truth (translation by Annalisa Crea), the latter released only as an ebook and containing a prequel to the two earlier volumes.
The story follows FBI detective Will Piper, who hunts a serial killer nicknamed Doomsday (Giorno del Giudizio in Italian), whose hallmark is sending his victims postcards with the date of their death, a date he can predict with unfailing accuracy. As the investigations unfold, Piper comes to acknowledge the existence of a strange medieval library, whose volumes supposedly hold the birth and death dates of every person on the planet.
To the original trilogy Glenn Cooper later added a fourth book, titled The Keepers of the Library (translation by Giovanni Arduino) and set in 2026, in which the retired detective Piper discovers more details about the library and about the red-haired friars who would have written the volumes generation after generation…
The Cal Donovan Series
E veniamo ora alla saga di cui fa parte anche La verità di Maria, romanzo di Glenn Cooper appartenente alla serie Cal Donovan. Inaugurata nel 2011 con Il marchio del diavolo (translation by Roberta Cristofani and Francesca Frulla), questa segue per l’appunto le avventure di Cal Donovan, un professore di Teologia presso l’Università di Harvard, che grazie alle sue doti brillanti viene coinvolto in casi sempre più intricati e pericolosi.
Nel primo romanzo il docente non appare in prima persona, anche se le vicende sono ambientate nello stesso universo narrativo e ci presentano alcuni dei personaggi che ritroveremo in un secondo momento, fungendo così da prequel per i libri seguenti: Il segno della croce (2016, traduzione di Monica Maria Cleofe Bottini), Il debito (2017, traduzione di Barbara Ronca) I figli di Dio (2018, traduzione di Barbara Ronca) Il sigillo del cielo (2019, traduzione di Barbara Ronca) La quarta profezia (2022, traduzione di Barbara Ronca) e La verità di Maria (2023, traduzione di Barbara Ronca).
That latest, in particular, is set between 1st-century Egypt and the contemporary world, transporting us once again into a scenario that blends religion, ancient beliefs, the relationship with death, and precious artifacts—this time a funerary mask made of papyrus rather than linen, which young Samia steals from the archives of the Cairo Museum in order to scrape together money to pay for her sister’s medical care.
When, however, she glimpses inside it an unsettling and dangerous inscription, she phones her former archaeology professor, none other than Cal Donovan, informing him of the strange discovery. Unfortunately, a few hours later Samia vanishes into thin air, forcing Cal to locate her as quickly as possible to prevent the artifact from falling into the wrong hands and the world suffering the consequences…
The last, published on June 11, 2024, arrives in bookstores: a new Glenn Cooper novel with Cal Donovan, The Last Conclave (Nord). The plot? When, just two years after his election, Pope John XXIV is found dead in his bed, the Vatican must quickly move past its shock and organize a new conclave. On opening day, after the traditional procession of the electing cardinals, the decision is declared Extra omnes and the doors are closed. In the afternoon, the faithful wait for the outcome of the first ballot, yet hours pass and no smoke rises from the chimney, black or white. Caught between ceremonial duties and a growing sense of unease, the Secretary of State Elisabetta Celestino makes an unprecedented move: breaking the conclave seal and opening the doors. And the scene that unfolds is surreal. The Sistine Chapel is empty. The electing cardinals have vanished into thin air.
Arriving in the Vatican as a CNN contributor to comment on the conclave, Cal Donovan immediately joins the investigations into that seemingly impossible disappearance. And, as the world holds its breath for news, Cal gradually realizes with horror that this is only the latest piece of a plan devised by a group of powerful and determined individuals, people who for eight centuries have schemed in the shadows to wash the Church’s sins in blood and rebuild it from the ground up…
The Damned Trilogy
Composed of the three volumes Damn’d (2014, translation by Paolo Falcone), The Gate of Darkness (2015, translation by Paolo Falcone) and The Invasion of Darkness (2015, translation by Monica Bottini), this trilogy follows John, an ex-soldier and now security officer at a scientific research center, and Emily, a theoretical physicist who works at the same research center.
Each novel thus explores the possibility of life after death, prompting us to ask whether we can truly trust those who, in life, yielded to the seductions of Evil and have for centuries been banished to the land of the Damned. Because once the portal is opened, violent and ruthless men begin laying waste to the cities of our world, and it falls to John and Emily to find a way to stop all of this…
Other Books by Glenn Cooper
The Map of Destiny
The Map of Destiny (2011, translated by Velia Februari and Amalia Rincori) centers on archeologist Luc Simard, drawn into the discovery of some rock paintings. Meanwhile, a flashback shows Menaud, abbot of Ruac Abbey, while he leafs through a volume written in code, but whose first words are in Latin: “I, Barthomieu, monk of Ruac Abbey, am two hundred and twenty years old. And this is my story.” In the rest of the novel, we thus uncover the secrets of those rock drawings and of an unusual medieval manuscript, in an adventure that could prove deadly for Simard, as he has come too close to the truth.
The Door of Destinies
Le chiavi del cosmo
L’ultimo conclave
La verità di Maria
La trilogia di Dannati
Il Libro delle Anime
I Custodi della Biblioteca
The Last Day
In The Last Day (2012, translation by Elettra Cantoni), we observe the world’s gravest crisis yet. Disoriented, young and old, believers and atheists alike ask the same questions: what will happen now that humanity’s greatest dream has turned into a nightmare? What will happen at the moment of the last day? This is also asked by Cyrus O’Malley, an FBI detective grappling with a case that unsettles him: why has the serial killer he is pursuing carved a tiny hole at the base of the skull of his victims? For Cyrus, that case has become an obsession. And it matters little whether, to solve it, he must give up everything dear to him…
The Chalice of Life
With The Chalice of Life (2013, translated by Roberta Zuppet) we move to fifteenth-century England, where Thomas Malory has one sole reason to live: to protect the key that grants access to an ancient secret. And he has only one way to do it: to write an account of the deeds of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. In the present, centuries after his disappearance, Arthur Malory then inherits the legacy left by his ancestor and faces the challenge ahead, following the clues that Thomas included in his work to embark on the quest for the Holy Grail.
Clean. Tabula Rasa
We move to Clean. Tabula Rasa (2020, translated by Barbara Ronca), in which a certain Dr. Steadman, in his pursuit of a cure for Alzheimer’s, has released a virus worldwide that is unknown and highly infectious, causing memory loss in anyone. The only hope seems to lie with Dr. Jamie Abbott, who, to remedy Steadman’s error, needs the help of Mandy Alexander, a friend and colleague from Indianapolis. From Boston, it becomes a journey of fourteen hundred kilometers across a country in turmoil, where danger lurks everywhere. And Jamie can only hope that there is still someone out there who remembers what makes us human.
The Time of the Devil
As for The Time of the Devil (2021, translation by Giorgia di Tolle), the plot centers on the puzzling disappearance of the Andreason family from their holiday home in Calabria, and four years later, suddenly, the two Andreason sisters reappear in the same villa. They do not remember what happened and, moreover, they do not seem to have aged a day. The worldwide news cycle debates whether it is a miracle or a curse, since both sisters suffer from the same form of leukemia. Yet no one can imagine that the truth, forged in fire and blood, hides where hope meets fear.
A New Pope
And now we come to A New Pope (2022, translated by Elisa Banfi), in which we meet Anthony Budd, a cardinal trying to shield himself from the Curia’s intrigues and the prying eyes of his “brothers.” In a conclave that drags on for too long, his name unexpectedly surfaces as the one capable of uniting the College of Cardinals. But it is not only the burden of responsibility that weighs on him: no one knows that becoming pope for him means risking the secret he has guarded for decades. A secret that could change the fate of the Church forever, shaking the world like the apocalyptic trumpets…
The Keys to the Cosmos
The Door of Destinies
And we come to Glenn Cooper’s new book, The Door of Destinies (Nord, translated by Barbara Ronca). To save the woman he loves, as well as the king’s favored concubine, the court healer Mannu embarks on a journey through time: from Nineveh in 640 BC, he finds himself in today’s London in search of a cure for a malady that does not seem to be resolving. In the present, the figure of Kate Mayne, an Assyriology professor, will play a key role, uncovering more about herself and the culture she has devoted years of study to…
