THE PHENOMENAL INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER 'An anti-fascist history lesson disguised as a novel' New York Times 'Extraordinary' TLS 'The novel Italy has been waiting for. A masterpiece' Roberto Saviano A startling look into the fascist mindset, a portrait of unrelenting determination, and an impeccable work of historical fiction. M tells the story of the rise of fascism from within the mind of its founder. A gripping and masterful expose, it explores Benito Mussolini's rise to power and a movement that, amidst a failing democracy, came to shape the world. 'Panoptic and polyphonic, Scurati's book gives us the experiences of the fearful and the feared, the rhetoric of both the revolutionaries and the reactionaries ... an immense mosaic' Lucy Hughes-Hallett, New Statesman 'An indisputable literary achievement ... Italo Calvino would have loved it' El Pais

Winds of revolution blows in Europe, and in Milan, a group of men poorly armed revolt against the Austrian army to restore freedom of the city. Jacopo and Aspasia live in those bright days of 1848 a love so brief as the insurrection itself, but as a perennial ideal that will never died. Theirs is a story of passion and betrayal in a world who dreamed of ideals and absolute love. Thirty-six years after the events, Count Italo Morosini, senator of the Kingdom of Italy, receives an anonymous manuscript that takes him back in time.