Don Orsino

In the bustling heart of a newly unified Italy, young Don Orsino Saracinesca inherits the weight of centuries‑old family honor. Living in the sprawling ancestral palace, he watches the old world crumble—ancient Rome reduced to ruins, monarchs and popes fading into memory—while the fresh vigor of a modern empire rises around him. Against this backdrop of political upheaval and cultural rebirth, Orsino wrestles with the expectations of his lineage and his own yearning for love, art, and purpose.

The novel opens with a stark, candle‑lit vigil in a Vatican chamber, where a solitary cardinal lies unmourned, hinting at the uneasy intersection of faith, power, and mortality that will shadow Orsino’s journey. As crowds gather around a towering catafalque honoring a fallen king, the story invites listeners to explore a world where personal desire collides with history, and where the young heir must decide what legacy he will truly carry forward.