Giuliano Da Empoli's The Hour of the Predator is a timely and incisive examination of the shifting power dynamics in global politics, where traditional governments find themselves increasingly outmatched by technology tycoons and autocratic strongmen: geopolitical predators who shape the world through brute force, deception, and disruption.
Drawing on his experience as a political advisor to a former Italian Prime Minister, Da Empoli takes the reader on an eye-opening journey around the international political circuit-from New York to Riyadh, and from the United Nations to Mohammed bin Salman's Ritz-Carlton- and through the looking glass to a world of ruthless power struggles, where the tech lords already seem to inhabit another world and AI is already out of control.
Blending the author's personal insight with startling historical comparisons to the days of Machiavelli and the Spanish conquest of Mexico, The Hour of the Predator describes the growing influence of tech billionaires, the rise of autocratic regimes and the erosion of traditional diplomacy, to paint a chilling picture of a disintegrating world order.
By:
Giuliano da Empoli
Designed by:
Steve Leard
Translated by:
Sam Taylor
Imprint: Pushkin Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 198mm,
Width: 129mm,
ISBN: 9781805680161
ISBN 10: 1805680161
Pages: 160
Publication Date: 01 November 2025
Audience:
General/trade
,
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
ELT Advanced
,
Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming
Table of Contents: New York, September 2024 Florence, March 2012 Riyadh, November 2024 New York, September 2024 Washington, D.C., November 2024 Chicago, November 2017 Montreal, September 2024 Paris, September 1931 Berlin, December 2024 Rome, October 1998 Lisbon, May 2023 Lieusaint, December 2024
Giuliano da Empoli is an Italian and Swiss writer and political scientist living in France. He was once a senior advisor to Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. His debut novel, The Wizard of the Kremlin, sold more than half a million copies in France, where it also won the Grand Prix du Roman and was a finalist for the Goncourt Prize. It went on to become an international bestseller, being translated into thirty-five languages across the world. A film version, starring Jude Law as Vladimir Putin, is forthcoming. The Hour of the Predator is currently France's best-selling non-fiction title, and translation rights have been sold in 17 languages so far. Sam Taylor is a translator, novelist and journalist. He is the author of four novels and the award-winning translator of more than 60 books from French, including Laurent Binet's HHhH, Leïla Slimani's Lullaby, and Hubert Mingarelli's A Meal in Winter.
Reviews for The Hour of the Predator: Encounters with the Autocrats and Tech Billionaires Taking Over the World
""Da Empoli issues a warning from history, that the Borgia poisoners are back as tech bros, creating a digital Somalia, and, worse, an AI future where the machines will rule humanity while democratic politics is nowt more than a gimp in a gimp suit. Brilliant, acidly witty, terrifying."" —John Sweeney
