The Sermon on the Fall of Rome

'Astute, cunning, brilliant ... Prepare for wonders ... Blackly playful and serious, this is an earthy, philosophical tract drawing on history and human experience; the tiny hopes, the immense failures and, above all, the ambivalence. Ferrari pursues his story with the delicacy and skill of a musician reaching the final note' Eileen Battersby, Irish Times. 'Ferrari writes with power and perceptive humour' David Platzer, The Tablet. 'A novelist whose concern with how we should live and what we can believe puts him in the tradition of Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus' Allan Massie, The Scotsman. 'Focusing on Corsica, but taking in Paris, Algeria and French colonies in Africa, its portrayal of the many accommodations we make with 'circumstance' is both humorous and poignant' Catriona Graham, Guardian. 'More admirable even than his previous works ... The best novel of the year' Raphaelle Leyris, Le Monde. 'A beautiful meditation on the end of a world ... as universal as a Greek tragedy' Astrid de Larminat, Le Figaro. 'Overflowing with eroticism, sensuality, violence and blinding flashes of wisdom' Claire Devarrieux, Liberation. 'Language that undulates like a serpent in the sun ... A brilliant novel' Bernard Pivot, L'Academie Goncourt. 'In novel after novel, Jerome Ferrari creates unparalleled underworlds, intimate and powerful ... he grips the reader with language at once profound, heartfelt and melancholy' Marine Landrot, Telerama.