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

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

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

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

A compelling mix of history and imagination. . . . Harris weaves a strong story that honors history and imagines vivid details. There are great naval battles, disastrous storms at sea, and the threat posed by Antony and Cleopatra. . . . And through it all, Rome descends into dictatorship.

Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

This crisply written novel has manifest appeal for fans of Roman history, military history, political intrigue, and biographical fiction.

Booklist

Intimate, tense and rich with historical detail, Agrippa is perhaps the ultimate story of the power behind the throne, mapping Rome’s dictatorial turn under Caesar Augustus in a clear-eyed and nuanced narrative. . . . Compelling. . . . The prose is rich and driving, the characters layered and memorable even outside of their historical context, and the lessons of Agrippa’s story both apparent and thoroughly entertaining. This is vintage Harris, great for longtime fans and new readers alike.

BookPage

Robert Harris returns to his longstanding passion of imagining life in the Roman Empire ... devotees of the period will lap up the bloodshed, political machinations and skilful visualisation of an era.

The Scotsman

Always compelling ... as intense as a Christopher Nolan movie.

The Gloss

Harris is a superb storyteller and Agrippa is a compelling read.

Morning Star