Act of Oblivion

Robert Harris' fastest-selling hardback since records began comes to paperback with an unmissable campaign 'A belter of a thriller' THE TIMES 'A master storyteller . . . an important book for our particular historical moment' OBSERVER 'His best since Fatherland' SUNDAY TIMES 'From what is it they flee?' He took a while to reply. By the time he spoke the men had gone inside. He said quietly, 'They killed the King.' 1660. Colonel Edward Whalley and his son-in-law, Colonel William Goffe, cross the Atlantic. Having been found guilty of high treason for the murder of Charles the I, they are wanted and on the run. A reward hangs over their heads - for their capture, dead or alive. In London, Richard Nayler, secretary of the regicide committee of the Privy Council, is tasked with tracking down the fugitives. He'll stop at nothing until the two men are brought to justice. Act of Oblivion is an epic journey across continents, and a chase like no other. 'A ripping page-turner' FINANCIAL TIMES 'You could not do better than this' DAILY TELEGRAPH

About the Author :
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, which won four prizes including the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, Conclave, Munich, The Second Sleep, V2, Act of Oblivion and 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.

Review :
One of Harris's most compellingly paced to date . . . it is his best since Fatherland 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. 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 Harris's books are always supremely readable - he has practically trademarked the term 'master storyteller' [Harris] writes with a skill and ingenuity that few other novelists can match A lightning-quick thriller, the tension cranked right up throughout, and Harris' 17th century New England is so real you can almost smell it 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 Gripping . . . Thoroughly enjoyable. . . . [This} deeply researched story is the author's brilliant reimagining of real historical events, with sympathetic characters and a compelling plot Harris's cleverness, judgment and eye for detail are second to none The master of the intelligent thriller