- Published: 19 September 2023
- ISBN: 9781529160321
- Imprint: Penguin
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 576
- RRP: $26.00
Act of Oblivion
- Published: 19 September 2023
- ISBN: 9781529160321
- Imprint: Penguin
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 576
- RRP: $26.00
Harris's books are always supremely readable - he has practically trademarked the term 'master storyteller'
Alex Preston, Observer
The king of the page-turning thriller
i Paper
The master of the intelligent thriller
Daily Telegraph
[Harris] writes with a skill and ingenuity that few other novelists can match
Financial Times
Harris is a master of historical fiction, a compelling author who brings to life the recent and ancient past
Justin Warshaw, TLS
Harris's cleverness, judgment and eye for detail are second to none
Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times
I have been waiting for most of my life for Robert Harris to write a novel that is not gripping, insightful and entertaining. I am waiting still
Ben Macintyre, The Times
Harris (Munich) again turns a historical event into a canny page-turner. . . Harris humanizes the hunter and the hunted, and brings to life an obscure chapter in colonial American history. This further burnishes Harris's reputation as a talented author of historical suspense
Publishers Weekly
Gripping . . . Thoroughly enjoyable. . . . [This} deeply researched story is the author's brilliant reimagining of real historical events, with sympathetic characters and a compelling plot
Kirkus Reviews
Act of Oblivion is a belter of a thriller. It will be compulsive reading for those who loved An Officer and a Spy, Harris's book about the Dreyfus affair. Like that novel, the research is immaculate. A chewy, morally murky slice of history is made into a thriller that twists and surprises. The characters are strong and we care about their predicament. The story stretches over continents and years, but the suspense feels as taut as if the three main characters were locked in a room with a gun.
The Times
Act of Oblivion is a fine novel about a divided nation, about invisible wounds that heal slower than visible ones . . . it feels like an important book for our particular historical moment, one that shows the power of forgiveness and the intolerable burden of long-held grudges
Observer
Act Of Oblivion offers a resonant history of both England and America as they struggle to forge a myth of nationhood out of opposing ideologies
Daily Mail
The joy is in the vivid re-creation of 17th Century England and America and in the sly parallels with today that Harris teases out
Mail on Sunday
He has taken a truly extraordinary factual tale and turned it into a fun fictional version, with pace throughout, and a crowd-pleasing finale
The Oldie
One of Harris's most compellingly paced to date . . . it is his best since Fatherland
Sunday Times
A masterclass in storytelling, so enthralling that if you'd disembowelled me whilst I was reading this book I doubt I'd have noticed!
Daily Express
A tale that grips from start to finish. It's a remarkable achievement
Metro
Master storyteller Robert Harris has forged history anew, melding fact and fiction
RTÉ
Harris spins an exciting tale which I hope will leave you hungry for more
Inside History Magazine
If you like your page-turning popular fiction at the more intelligent end of the spectrum, you could not do better than this.
Daily Telegraph
A gripping thriller
Press Association
A gripping revenger's tale... This is by far Harris's best book since An Officer and a Spy, which dealt with another great national division: the Dreyfus case. He has produced a ripping page-turner that breathes all the complexities and moral nuances of the Civil War period
Financial Times
Lucid and full of suspense
Spectator
In his new thriller, Robert Harris wrests [a] fascinating period back from its unjust oblivion, showing how closely its complex landscape of constitutional crises and Puritan politics played out in new unregulated media resonates with us today
The Critic
Harris, deft as ever, weaves a hefty amount of historical fact into the narrative, politics, religion, colonial life, family ties - as well as themes of forgiveness and reconciliation. Underneath it all though is the remorseless and building propulsion of hunter and prey
New Statesman
A drama so involving and nerve-wracking, you can barely turn the pages fast enough. Historic!
Saga Magazine
A thrilling page-turner based on real events . . . packed with rich and fascinating historical detail
The Scotsman
Another fantastic piece of historical fiction from Robert Harris, immaculately researched and utterly believable
IPU Review
A gripping thriller and a timely reminder of the dangers of a deeply divided and intolerant society
The Shropshire Magazine
The book excels in its stunning recreation of the landscape of America... Harris proves himself to be masterful at this and it gives the book a vibrant memorability
New Statesman
Few writers combine history, politics and excitement of a thriller as enthrallingly as Robert Harris does.
Sunday Times
What Harris does here is nothing short of masterful.
Irish Times
Harris displays an impressive grasp of the historical context without taxing his readers by showing his 'workings'.
Church Times
Based on real and fascinating history, this is Robert Harris's best since An Officer and a Spy
The Times
Pacy and tense, and the pungently evoked past offers up some shrewd present-day parallels
Mail on Sunday
An absolutely stunning historical novel and a ripping crime thriller at the same time. I've been recommending it far and wide and buying it for people for Christmas!
Dead Good
The best historical fiction combines a gripping plot with meticulous research - leaving the reader inspired to learn more about the real-life protagonists. And the latest release from Robert Harris once more proves his mastery of the genre
Soldier
A lightning-quick thriller, the tension cranked right up throughout, and Harris' 17th century New England is so real you can almost smell it
Tim Weaver, author of BLACKBIRD
I loved Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris, which achieves the astonishing feat of taking 17th-century events and people and telling their stories in 21st-century language without a single seam showing
Ben Macintyre, The Times
Thrilling
Gregory Doran, The Times
This is a novel that asks big historical questions. You could read it as a pure thriller, and it is one of Harris's most compellingly paced to date. You could read it as a piece of intelligent historical immersion. I think it is more; I think it is his best novel since Fatherland.
Sunday Times
It's a belter.
The Times
If only all historical thrillers could be this entertaining.
Observer
In this tense and beautifully written account of the ensuing manhunt, Harris brings sympathy to characters on either side of the civil war that divided a nation.
Daily Mail
A brainy, compulsive page-turner.
Daily Telegraph
A violent, gripping, globetrotting chase thriller
Daily Mirror
He’s my go-to person that I know will keep me entertained
Jane Garvey
[A] rich, propulsive novel
Sunday Times