Award-winning author Alexander Stille has been called ?one of the best English-language writers on Italy? by the , and in he sets out to answer the question: What happens when vast wealth, a virtual media monopoly, and acute shamelessness combine in one man? Many are the crimes of Silvio Berlusconi, Stille argues, and, with deft analysis, he weaves them into a single mesmerizing chronicle?an epic saga of rank criminality, cronyism, and self-dealing at the highest levels of power.