The Hour of the Predator

“The one book you absolutely need to read in order to understand current politics.”
—Anne Applebaum, author of Autocracy, Inc.

“Describes both the wolves who run governments and those who run tech companies.”
—David Brooks, The New York Times

“An impassioned, dazzling slim volume about the state of the world…. This is a sharply written and provocative book, filled with witty asides and gallows humour.”
—Financial Times

“Da Empoli issues a warning from history, that the Borgia poisoners are back as tech bros. Brilliant, acidly witty, terrifying.”
—John Sweeney, author of Killer in the Kremlin

“Immensely readable, mordantly ironic and unsparing.”
—Michael Ignatieff

“An Italian-Swiss writer spent years in the corridors of power observing what he sees as the emergence of a new cadre of strongmen in politics and technology, who feed off each other and share a love of disruption. He skewers them with sardonic humour.”
—Economist, Best Books of 2025

“There is plenty that is irresistible about The Hour of the Predator. Mr da Empoli’s experiences at the United Nations in New York, the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh and on stage with Mr Altman provide vignettes of the Borgian power grab that he relates with exquisite detachment…. Read Mr da Empoli’s book, if only to understand how fundamentally the balance of power in the world may be changing.”
—Economist

“A stylish and coolly sceptical study of power politics in an age of disorder… Apocalyptic in tone (there is the obligatory section on Machiavelli), it is also smartly observed and very funny.”
—New Statesman, Books of the Year 2025

“A sharply observed work of political philosophy, with the warning that, in this world, the big ones eat the little ones.”
—Kirkus

‘A series of vignettes and meditations on the upending of the international order… A gorgeous though alarming piece of writing.”
—Sunday Times, Current Affairs Book of the Year

“As Trump’s American critics and admirers alike struggle to understand him in terms of 20th-century right-wing traditions or Jacksonian strands in American history, da Empoli offers a useful alternative.”
—Semafor

“Machiavelli’s The Prince for our times.”
—The Spectator

“Essential reading for Europe’s political elite.”
—Politico

“The short and terrifying true story of the beastly forces dominating our time, where vulgar strongmen, ferocious autocrats, transhuman technologists, and libertarian tyrants dressed in Star Trek fashion are redefining the international order.”
—Air Mail

“The Hour of the Predator may be little, but it is fierce… While others have written of tech’s slow boiling of democracy’s frog, Da Empoli’s take is fresh, personal, and as bracing as it is bleak.”
—The Irish Times

“As must-read as any book can be this year.”
—Big Issue

“Cultured and perceptive.”
—Irish Independent