Pope Francis was born in Buenos Aires on December 17, 1936, the son of Italian migrants, the first of five children born in the working-class barrio of Flores, Jorge Mario Bergoglio qualified as a chemical technician, graduated in philosophy in 1963, and became a priest in 1969. He was appointed provincial of the Jesuits of Argentina in 1973, and was named auxiliary bishop in 1992, archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998, and created cardinal in 2001. In 2013, he became the Bishop of Rome and the 266th Pope of the Catholic Church.

HOPE was written in collaboration with Carlo Musso and is being published simultaneously in major languages in over eighty countries.

Richard Dixon lives and works in Italy. His translations include works by Giacomo Leopardi, Umberto Eco, Roberto Calasso, Paolo Volponi and Antonio Moresco. His translation of The Experience of Pain by Carlo Emilio Gadda is published by Penguin Classics.