Rome, 63 BC. In a city on the brink of acquiring a vast empire, seven men are struggling for power. Cicero is consul, Caesar his ruthless young rival, Pompey the republic's greatest general, Crassus its richest man, Cato a political fanatic, Catilina a psychopath, and Clodius an ambitious playboy. The stories of these real historical figures - their alliances and betrayals, their cruelties and seductions, their brilliance and their crimes - are all interleaved to form this epic novel. Its narrator is Tiro, a slave who serves as confidential secretary to the wily, humane, complex Cicero. He knows all his master's secrets - a dangerous position to be in. From the discovery of a child's mutilated body, through judicial execution and a scandalous trial, to the brutal unleashing of the Roman mob, Lustrum is a study in the timeless enticements and horrors of power.
Robert Harris is the author of Fatherland, Enigma, Archangel, Pompeii, Imperium and The Ghost, all of which were international bestsellers. His work has been translated into thirty-seven languages. After graduating with a degree in English from Cambridge University, he worked as a reporter for the BBC's Panorama and Newsnight programmes, before becoming political editor of the Observer and subsequently a columnist on the Sunday Times and the Daily Telegraph. He is married to Gill Hornby and they live with their four children in a village near Hungerford.
Title: Lustrum
Author: Robert Harris
ISBN: 9780091801007
Binding:
Publisher: Cornerstone
Publication Date: 2009-10-08
Number of Pages: 464
Weight: 0.8212 kg
Harris is the master. With Lustrum, [he] has surpassed himself. It is one of the most exciting thrillers I have ever read -- Peter Jones Evening Standard Harris communicates such a strong sense of imperial Rome - the book is awesomely well-informed about the minutiae of everyday life Guardian Thoroughly engaging ... The allure of power and the perils that attend it have seldom been so brilliantly anatomised in a thriller Sunday Times Harris never makes his comparisons between Rome and modern Britain explicit, but they are certainly there. And that's the principal charm of his ancient thrillers - their up-to-dateness Sunday Telegraph Magnificent ... Better than Robert Graves's Claudius novels -- Allan Massie Standpoint
