The only rule: win

In 2027, the world is on the brink of war: China is besieging Taiwan and the United States is preparing a response. In the midst of this titanic clash, an Italian company becomes a highly sought-after prey. It is NaviTech, a leader in the production of advanced microchips, and it possesses industrial secrets that could change the fate of the world. The two major powers in the world want to control it, but the war between China and the United States is not the only war the company must face. Ottavio De Luca, the visionary founder, has never designated an heir. A violent struggle for succession is therefore brewing. The favorite seems to be the eldest daughter, Caterina, who has supported Ottavio throughout his life, with excellent results. Her nephew, Stefano, the current CEO, is, however, willing to do anything to maintain power. In this duel, no one seems to give credence to the youngest son of the founder of NaviTech, Gregorio, who has always been considered the black sheep and who, to escape his father's shadow, moved to New York and pursued his dream of becoming a photographer. His career, however, never took off and, as he approached forty, the weight of failure ignited in him a desire for redemption. A desire that soon became a real craving.

With The Game of Power (Mondadori, 2025, pp. 372, also e-book) Federico and Jacopo Rampini construct a fast-paced thriller, centered on a ruthless game for absolute hegemony, in which alliances break, principles bend, and loyalty is sold to the highest bidder. A thriller that offers a non-trivial reflection on how technological innovation can determine the fate of the planet, but which is also the story of a father and son, divided by misunderstandings and silences, who in the chaos of events will find a way to reconnect.

We then asked Jacopo Rampini to tell us how the idea for a novel like The Game of Power was born:

“It was born from the desire to return to work with my father, after a theatrical experience together, and from my dream of transforming his geopolitical essays into a fictional story. I always thought they contained all the elements to become narrative. I was inspired by the idea of an Italian Succession: in our case too there is a family business and a father-son conflict, but with the addition of the geopolitical dimension, which is my father's field. The result is a story that intertwines drama, technology, identity and power, seeking a language capable of making reality dialogue with imagination. For me, who comes from the world of cinema and television, this novel was also a first step towards audiovisual adaptation, with strong characters, family dynamics and plot twists anchored to major global themes”.

The protagonist, Gregorio, is a complex character, at times disconcerting...how could you describe him?
“Gregorio was born from personal experiences. Like me, he is an Italian who grew up in the United States, who built his career there but feels the call of his roots. He is an artist in crisis, who has lost his creative spark and finds himself faced with an unexpected choice: to return to Italy to take over the reins of the family business. I wanted to tell the story of the conflict between two identities - national and personal - and that deep desire to assert oneself in the shadow of an overbearing father. Gregorio is torn between gratitude and rebellion, a sense of duty and the need for autonomy. I put a lot of my own experience and the difficulties encountered in trying to redefine oneself, especially when you are tied to a strong and public father figure. Gregorio is not a hero, but a man grappling with his own destiny”.

The novel has its strength in the narrative rhythm and the credibility of the dialogues... how did you manage to give strength to these two elements?

“The narrative rhythm was born from the intertwining of Gregorio's personal journey and global geopolitical events. Every turn between China and the United States has a consequence on his life, and vice versa. This parallelism allowed us to build a tense but also emotional thriller. As for the dialogues, I thought of them as lines from a screenplay. I wrote them, read them aloud, rehearsed them as if they were on a set, always looking for the right tone. As an actor, my first criterion was: does it work on stage? Does it sound real? Only if they stood the test of voice and body did they remain. Credibility, for me, comes from the sound, the breathing, the tension that is created between the characters, not just from the written word. And I believe that this concreteness helps the reader to 'see' the scene, not just read it”.

The novel talks a lot about technology and, above all, artificial intelligence and talks about it by highlighting its possibilities rather than its dangers...where does this choice come from?

“Living in the United States, I have absorbed a less catastrophic approach to technological innovations. There, artificial intelligence is often seen as an opportunity. I myself use it daily: to write, organize, search for ideas. I didn't want to just tell about the risks, but also about the potential. In our novel, AI becomes a means to prolong a father-son relationship, an emotional as well as practical tool. Instead of an enemy to be feared, it is almost a 'spiritual' presence that preserves memory, advice, thoughts. We wanted to explore a possible human use of technology, which becomes an extension of the mind and the voice. I think it is important not to limit ourselves to imagining apocalyptic scenarios, but also to ask ourselves how we could live with these new intelligences”.

But after having talked about it so much in the novel, what is power for you?

“During my studies in New York, I remember a theatrical exercise that struck me deeply: one of the actors was named 'king' for five minutes, with full power over the others. It was impressive to observe how each one reacted: some became authoritarian, some sought approval, some froze. A phrase stuck in my mind: 'If you really want to know someone, give them power'. Power, for me, is exactly this: a revealer. It is the lens through which fragilities, ambitions, fears emerge. In the novel, power is not only economic or technological, but familial, emotional, hereditary. It is a burden and a privilege, a challenge and a temptation. And like every form of power, it imposes a choice: to use it for oneself, or for others”.