Preview
  • Pompeii

  • A Novel
  • By: Robert Harris
  • Narrated by: John Lee
  • Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (2,347 ratings)

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Pompeii

By: Robert Harris
Narrated by: John Lee
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Publisher's summary

Best seller

"Terrific...gripping... A literally shattering climax." (The New York Times Book Review)

All along the Mediterranean coast, the Roman empire’s richest citizens are relaxing in their luxurious villas, enjoying the last days of summer. The world’s largest navy lies peacefully at anchor in Misenum. The tourists are spending their money in the seaside resorts of Baiae, Herculaneum, and Pompeii.

But the carefree lifestyle and gorgeous weather belie an impending cataclysm, and only one man is worried. The young engineer Marcus Attilius Primus has just taken charge of the Aqua Augusta, the enormous aqueduct that brings fresh water to a quarter of a million people in nine towns around the Bay of Naples. His predecessor has disappeared. Springs are failing for the first time in generations. And now there is a crisis on the Augusta’ s 60-mile main line - somewhere to the north of Pompeii, on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius.

Attilius - decent, practical, and incorruptible - promises Pliny, the famous scholar who commands the navy, that he can repair the aqueduct before the reservoir runs dry. His plan is to travel to Pompeii and put together an expedition, then head out to the place where he believes the fault lies. But Pompeii proves to be a corrupt and violent town, and Attilius soon discovers that there are powerful forces at work - both natural and man-made - threatening to destroy him.

With his trademark elegance and intelligence, Robert Harris, best-selling author of Archangel and Fatherland, re-creates a world on the brink of disaster.

©2003 Robert Harris (P)2003 Books On Tape, Inc.
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Critic reviews

“Blazingly exciting...Pompeii palpitates with sultry tension.... What makes this novel all but unputdownable...is the bravura fictional flair that crackles through it.... It is hard to imagine a more thoroughgoingly enjoyable thriller.” (London Sunday Times)

"Breakneck pace, constant jeopardy and subtle twists of plot...a blazing blockbuster... The depth of the research in the book is staggering.” (Daily Mail)

“[A] stirring and absorbing novel...The final 100 pages are terrific, as good as anything Harris has done; and the last, teasing paragraph, done with the lightest of touches, is masterly.” (The Sunday Telegraph)