Agrippa

A persuasive portrait of rivalry in ancient Rome. This fictional memoir by Octavius’s right-hand man shows us bloodshed, betrayal and hectic jockeying for power. – Sam Leith * Guardian *
A fascinating study of how power corrupts. * The Times, 40 Books Not to Miss This Autumn *
I gobbled up its nearly 400 pages in no time. Robert Harris has produced another immensely readable historical novel: deeply researched, intelligently written and hugely entertaining. * Sunday Independent (Ireland) *
Gripping fiction slipped into the gaps between the building blocks of history. * The Express *
Thrilling … Agrippa is a swift-paced romp… Politics may be ‘a filthy business,’ as Agrippa observes, but in the hands of Mr. Harris, it is a drama of endless interest. * The Wall Street Journal *
In his new novel, Harris employs that same propulsive prose and whip-smart dialogue to imagine what Agrippa’s lost memoir might have revealed about his career as Rome’s great survivor… . Agrippa offers a forensically accurate account of Roman politics in the Late Republic spliced with an imaginative portrait of one of the period’s great, if flawed, heroes. The result is more than just a thrilling read; it is also a call to moral arms. Agrippa has multiple chances to resist Rome’s slide toward political absolutism yet, for the sake of convenience, fails to act. Harris, who started his career as a political journalist, clearly wants us to consider whether, in our own dark times, we might be in danger of doing the same. * The New York Times Book Review *
It’s a neat trick for a historical novelist to portray a well-known era through lesser-known eyes … the matter-of-fact style propels you through a pacy tale of bloodshed and backbiting. * The Mail on Sunday *
Harris fills in the gaps with propulsive flair in this speculative memoir as an ailing 50 -year- old Agrippa looks back on a life shaped by the realpolitik of the Roman empire territorial expansion, ruthless brutality, endless war games plus his combative friendship with Augustus. A slow burn portrait of psychological embitterment - but a story too of complicit silence as Rome slides into dictatorship. * Daily Mail *
As in many of Mr Harris’s novels, his narrator’s outsider perspective helps the reader navigate what may be an unfamiliar historical milieu … The author’s many fans will welcome this return to the Harris Ciceronic Universe. And for everyone else, Mr Harris’ novels provide an enjoyable primer on the grandeur that was Rome. * Economist *
Although Agrippa was responsible for all kinds of slaughter and skulduggery, I found myself rooting for him. That is due in no small part to a delicious fictional twist Harris introduces at the centre of Agrippa’s life… . The novel comes alive. You’re transported into the period, the room and the intrigue. I gobbled up its nearly 400 pages in no time. * Irish Independent *

Robert Harris is the author of sixteen bestselling novels:

• The Cicero Trilogy - Imperium, Lustrum and Dictator
• Fatherland
• Enigma
• Archangel
• Pompeii
• The Ghost
• The Fear Index
• An Officer and a Spy (winner of four prizes, including the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction)
• Conclave
• Munich
• The Second Sleep
• V2
• Act of Oblivion
• Precipice

His work has been translated into forty languages and nine of his books have been adapted for cinema and television. He lives in West Berkshire with his wife, Gill Hornby.

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