In this powerful sequel to Conclave, the acclaimed novel of the papacy, you will enter the shadowy corridors of the Vatican with the pope himself and go behind the scenes of the debates and intrigues that affect the lives of one billion Catholics around the world. Council is the riveting story of the first American-born pope, who sends shock waves throughout the Catholic Church when he summons a new ecumenical council, or gathering of the world's bishops - the first since the revolutionary Vatican II in the 1960s. His mission: to bring crucial, long-needed changes to the life of the Church he loves. Council is the passionate story of the men and women who are drawn into the maelstrom of faith and politics, passion and power. The pope who faces the most difficult crisis of his life . . . a beautiful journalist who loves a priest . . . a powerful Irish cardinal who bitterly opposes the pope's call for a council . . . a South American businessman who once...