Book description
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, 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.
