Mondo Agnelli Fiat, Chrysler, and the Power of a Dynasty

Italy's Agnelli dynasty is fascinating for all the same reasons that the Kennedy clan has held readers spellbound for decades. It's an uber-rich, powerful and glamorous family with a story that has all the ingredients of a soap opera: money, beauty, sexual escapades, suicide, drugs, scandal, tragedy, politics, and stunning real estate. What's more, this tale has something Americans love - a business dynasty that triumphs over adversity because of its own smarts, sweat and ability to bend the rules. The book revolves around two central, opposite characters: Gianni Agnelli, the titan of industry who managed to make Fiat into a symbol of Italy's postwar vitality while leading a second life as an international jet setter; and Gianni's serious, quiet and determined grandson John, who inherited control of Fiat from Gianni when it was nearly bankrupt and struggled - against all odds -- to make it into an international trailblazer when it grabbed control of Chrysler in a risky deal in 2009.

Jennifer Clark was the Italian Bureau chief for Dow Jones & Co. for ten years until 2010, covering all aspects of Italian business, politics, and finance for the wall Street Journal, wsj.com, and Dow Jones Newswires. Prior to working at Dow Jones, Clark was a banking reporter at Reuters in Milan, and documented Berlusconi's entry into politics for Bloomberg News in the early part of the 1990s. From 1988 to 1993, she was bureau chief at Variety, the U.S. entertainment weekly, covering Italy's film and television industries from Rome.