New historical fiction books to read in 2025

Reading lists

Robert Harris speaking in the Penguin Podcast studio

Robert Harris 1800×1200

Interviews

The Penguin Podcast: episode 6 – books to screen with Robert Harris

France_Destination-Reads_Article-header

11 of the best books set in France

Italy_Destination-Reads_Article-header

9 beach reads set in Italy

An image of Robert Harris next to a flatlay of his books on a blue background

WTSW-Robert-Harris_Hero-Mobile_Penguin.jpg

Where to start with Robert Harris

A photo of author Robert Harris, with the cover of his book Act of Oblivion

Robert-Harris_Hero-Desktop_Penguin.jpg

Extracts

First read: an exclusive extract from Robert Harris’s Act of Oblivion

Great-books-to-give-dads-this-fathers-day_Main_Penguin

Great books to give dads this Father’s Day

With the dawn of a new millennium about to break, the Nineties was a strange, floating decade of positivity, hope and something called the World Wide Web. 

1990-main-image-1800×1200.jpg

Books that defined the 1990s

life-according-to-cicero-article-960×450.jpg

Features

Life according to Robert Harris

books-about-power-reading-list-788×306.jpg

7 riveting novels on battles for power

Conclave

***OUT NOW - PRECIPICE, THE THRILLING NEW NOVEL FROM ROBERT HARRIS*** 
 
***NOW A MAJOR MOVIE *** 
***WINNER OF THE BAFTA FOR OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM*** 
***WINNER OF THE OSCAR FOR BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY*** 
 
THE POWER OF GOD. THE AMBITION OF MEN. 
 
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
Behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel, 118 cardinals are meeting in conclave to cast their votes in the world's most secretive election. 
 
They are holy men. But they are ambitious. And they have rivals. Over the next 72 hours, one of them will become the most powerful spiritual figure on earth. Who will it be? 
 
'Unputdownable' Guardian 
'Gripping' Sunday Times

Robert Harris is the author of fifteen 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 and Act of Oblivion. 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.

THE POWER OF GOD. THE AMBITION OF MEN. 
 
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
NOW AN BAFTA AND OSCAR WINNING MOVIE. 
 
Behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel, 118 cardinals are meeting in conclave to cast their votes in the world's most secretive election. 
 
They are holy men. But they are ambitious. And they have rivals. Over the next 72 hours, one of them will become the most powerful spiritual figure on earth. Who will it be? 
 
'Unputdownable' Guardian 
'Gripping' Sunday Times

Act of Oblivion

***OUT NOW, PRECIPICE, THE THRILLING NEW NOVEL FROM ROBERT HARRIS*** 
 
A SUNDAY TIMES BEST PAPERBACK OF THE YEAR 2023 
 
'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 
 
 
Sunday Times bestseller, June 2023

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

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

The king of the page-turning thriller

Harris is a master of historical fiction, a compelling author who brings to life the recent and ancient past

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

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

He has taken a truly extraordinary factual tale and turned it into a fun fictional version, with pace throughout, and a crowd-pleasing finale

A masterclass in storytelling, so enthralling that if you'd disembowelled me whilst I was reading this book I doubt I'd have noticed!

A tale that grips from start to finish. It's a remarkable achievement

Master storyteller Robert Harris has forged history anew, melding fact and fiction

Harris spins an exciting tale which I hope will leave you hungry for more

If you like your page-turning popular fiction at the more intelligent end of the spectrum, you could not do better than this.

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

A thrilling page-turner based on real events . . . packed with rich and fascinating historical detail

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

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

A drama so involving and nerve-wracking, you can barely turn the pages fast enough. Historic!

Another fantastic piece of historical fiction from Robert Harris, immaculately researched and utterly believable

A gripping thriller and a timely reminder of the dangers of a deeply divided and intolerant society

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

Few writers combine history, politics and excitement of a thriller as enthrallingly as Robert Harris does.

What Harris does here is nothing short of masterful.

Harris displays an impressive grasp of the historical context without taxing his readers by showing his 'workings'.

Based on real and fascinating history, this is Robert Harris's best since An Officer and a Spy

Pacy and tense, and the pungently evoked past offers up some shrewd present-day parallels

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!

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

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

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.

If only all historical thrillers could be this entertaining.

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.

A violent, gripping, globetrotting chase thriller

He’s my go-to person that I know will keep me entertained

PRE-ORDER PRECIPICE, THE THRILLING NEW NOVEL FROM ROBERT HARRIS, NOW - PUBLISHING AUGUST 2024 
 
'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

Lustrum

Welcome inside the violent, treacherous world of Roman politics, and learn how one man - clever, compassionate, devious, vulnerable - fought to reach the top.

***OUT NOW, PRECIPICE, THE THRILLING NEW NOVEL FROM ROBERT HARRIS*** 
 
'A pure thriller . . . wry, clever, thoughtful, with a terrific sense of timing and eye for character' Observer 
 
'No one delivers thrilling yet timeless games of power, sex, fame and Rome like Robert Harris' Sunday Telegraph 
 
Rome, 63 BC. Seven men are struggling for power: Cicero the consul, Caesar his ruthless rival, Pompey the republic's greatest general, Crassus its richest man, Cato a political fanatic, Catilina a psychopath and Clodius an ambitious playboy. 
 
These real historical figures - their alliances and betrayals, their cruelties and seductions - are all interleaved in Lustrum, through its narrator Tiro, a confidential secretary to Cicero. He knows all his master's secrets - a dangerous position to be in. 
 
 
'Thoroughly engaging . . . The allure of power and the perils that attend it have seldom been so brilliantly anatomised in a thriller' Sunday Times

Harris is the master. With Lustrum, [he] has surpassed himself. It is one of the most exciting thrillers I have ever read

Harris communicates such a strong sense of imperial Rome - the book is awesomely well-informed about the minutiae of everyday life

Thoroughly engaging ... The allure of power and the perils that attend it have seldom been so brilliantly anatomised in a thriller

Harris never makes his comparisons between Rome and modern Britain explicit, but they are certainly there. And that's the principal charm of his ancient thrillers - their up-to-dateness

Magnificent ... Better than Robert Graves's Claudius novels

Wry, clever, thoughtful, with a terrific sense of timing and eye for character.

Thrillingly paced and narrated ... What grips most about Lustrum is the seriousness with which the political issues at stake are taken, and the vividness of the characterisation

Offers great insight into the psychology of political calculation

Deeply satisfying, impeccably researched and spectacularly topical ... This is a thriller to die for ... The pace never falters, and the politics are sharply relevant

A fascinating world, a world of subtle political machinations and fine oratory and nuanced debate, and complex legislation, and intrigue ... Extremely absorbing

as sleek and well-crafted as any classic of the genre...a timeless political thriller

Vivid, so beguiling ... Lustrum is assiduously researched, and it conjures a trick often missed by historical novels: flavoursome facts give a sense not just of a place and time but of developing lives. Harris remembers that we all exist in our own past and in visions of our future as well as in the present ... It is this concertinaing of history into a series of cogent, life-changing memories that gives Lustrum its concentrated excellence

No one delivers thrilling yet timeless games of power, sex, fame and Rome like Robert Harris.

Robert Harris brings the cut-throat republic to life... He understands politics and how to dramatise them

Harris has replaced John le Carre ... stupendous plots, good characters and lightly applied erudition

Lustrum is a serious piece of storytelling, enormously enjoyable to read, with an insider's political tone which makes the dedication much more than a matter of convention or duty

Harris has taken the DNA of Cicero's great speeches and animated them with utterly believable dialogue...Harris's greatest triumph is perhaps in the evocation of Roman politics, the constant bending of ancient principles before the realities of power, and in his depiction of what it was like to live in the city: the mud, the guttering lamps, the smell of the blood from the temples ... I would take my hat off to Harris, if I hadn't already dashed it to the ground in jealous awe. *****

Gripping ... A compelling narrative, full of plots, murder, lust, fear, greed and corruption ... No writes is better at creating excitement over political theatre

The thrilling pace of the narrative does not let up from start to finish. Lustrum is an utterly engrossing, suspense-filled read

Dripping in detail it brings ancient Rome to vivid life, yet the political intrigue has echoes in today's ruling classes. And while the pace gallops along, the action is reined in just enough to crank the tension up. *****

Conspiracy, betrayal and political upheaval are the keys that turn this brilliantly researched page-turner

For a page turner...I would go for Lustrum (Hutchinson, £18.99) the second volume of Robert Harris's semi-fictional trilogy on the life of the Roman politician Cicero. The oldest stories really are often the best!

Harris is one of the consummate storytellers of the age, a master of narrative who - whatever genre he tackles - delivers books that are definitions of the word compulsive. In Lustrum, we have the mechanics of the thriller applied to ancient Rome, with immensely powerful results

A fine achievement: a hefty, politically serious thriller that effortlessly reanimates the dusty quarrels of Roman government while casting ironic and instructive sidelight on those of our own

Deeply satisfying, impeccably researched and spectacularly topical ... a thriller to die for ... Harris brilliantly evokes Rome on the edge of political chaos through the eyes of Cicero's slave Tiro, who acts as his mater's secretary ... The pace never falters, and the politics are sharply relevant for today

Harris communicates such a strong sense of Imperial Rome - the book is awesomely well-informed about the minutiae of everyday life

Lustrum... was a fascinating world, a world of subtle political machinations and fine oratory and nuanced debate, and complex legislation, and intrigue, and an extremely absorbing one

It is a tribute to Harris's deftness of touch that this book feels so fresh ... he has a lovely dry, debunking style ... Harris writes about the life of politics with an insight rare among historical novelists ... It is as a pure thriller ... wry, clever, thoughtful, with a terrific sense of timing and eye for character

Lustrum offers a great insight into the psychology of political calculation. The story of Cicero's fall from power to the point where even sworn allies close their doors on him offers little consolation over the next few months for our own leader

What a storm it is. The five year period covered by the novel, the 'lustrum' of its title, has some claim to be the most thrilling in the entire span of classical history ... Remorseless it may be; but it is also, as one would expect of Harris, thrillingly paced and narrated. The excitements of a classic thriller, however, are almost the least of the novel's virtues: virtues which derive in large part, from Cicero himself. What grips most about Lustrum is the seriousness with which the political issues at stake are taken, and the vividness of the characterisation: both of which, in large part, reflect the closeness of Harris's reading of his hero's speeches and correspondence

Robert Harris brings the cut-throat republic to life... He understands politics and how to dramatise them.

Offers great insight into the psychology of political calculation

[Lustrum] stands on its own merits as a thoroughly engaging historical novel. Republican Rome, with all its grandeur and corruption, has rarely been made as vivid as it appears in Harris's book. The allure of power and the perils that attend it have seldom been so brilliantly anatomised in a thriller.

Harris never makes his comparisons between Rome and modern Britain explicit, but they are certainly there. And that's the principal charm of his ancient thrillers - their up-to-dateness.

Intrigue and excitement all the way, brilliantly read by Oliver Ford Davies.

'A pure thriller . . . wry, clever, thoughtful, with a terrific sense of timing and eye for character' Observer 
 
'No one delivers thrilling yet timeless games of power, sex, fame and Rome like Robert Harris' Sunday Telegraph 
 
Rome, 63 BC. Seven men are struggling for power: Cicero the consul, Caesar his ruthless rival, Pompey the republic's greatest general, Crassus its richest man, Cato a political fanatic, Catilina a psychopath and Clodius an ambitious playboy. 
 
These real historical figures - their alliances and betrayals, their cruelties and seductions - are all interleaved in Lustrum, through its narrator Tiro, a confidential secretary to Cicero. He knows all his master's secrets - a dangerous position to be in. 
 
 
'Thoroughly engaging . . . The allure of power and the perils that attend it have seldom been so brilliantly anatomised in a thriller' Sunday Times 
 
There are currently two different covers and possibly a mix of stock until December 2022. They will be assigned at random.

Dictator

***OUT NOW, PRECIPICE, THE THRILLING NEW NOVEL FROM ROBERT HARRIS*** 
 
'Confirms Harris's undisputed place as our leading master of both the historical and contemporary thriller' Daily Mail 
 
'Climatic in every sense . . . I could not put it down' Guardian 
 
There was a time when Cicero held Caesar's life in the palm of his hand. But now Caesar is the dominant figure and Cicero's life is in ruins. Cicero's comeback requires wit, skill and courage. And for a brief and glorious period, the legendary orator is once more the supreme senator in Rome. But politics is never static. And no statesman, however cunning, can safeguard against the ambition and corruption of others. 
 
'The finest fictional treatment of Ancient Rome in the English language' The Scotsman

Triumphant, compelling and deeply moving…the finest fictional treatment of Ancient Rome in the English language. They are distinguished by the mastery of the sources, sympathetic imagination, political intelligence and narrative skill…It’s a wonderful, dramatic, story, wonderfully told

Robert Harris’s Cicero trilogy ends in grand style…the culmination of 12 years work and a remarkable literary achievement

The book works…more than that; at times it sings… Thrillers are supposed to thrill, but few really do raise your heart rate and short-circuit your critical faculties…Exhilarating…This trilogy deserves the highest compliment that can be paid to a work of historical fiction

Robert Harris completes his wonderful trilogy based on the life of Cicero. I haven’t enjoyed Roman history more since Robert Graves’s I, Claudius

Harris’s fascination with politics galvanises his impressive knowledgeableness into compulsive fiction

Harris is brilliant at the political then-as-now, giving Caesar with a hint of Blair – and also of Thatcher

Staying close to the sources, Harris picks his way masterfully through Cicero’s personal and political dilemmas…superb…does full justice to one of Rome’s most interesting complex and humane statesmen, whose pragmatic political treatises proved so influential during the renaissance and enlightenment

Harris skilfully navigates these fraught years in Cicero’s life … Dictator triumphs

Harris’ version of Cicero is a tremendous creation

[Dictator's] gripping dramas and powerful themes - the fragility of democracy and the fallibility of human beings among them - richly illuminate the conflicts of its era and our own

Superb…confirms Harris’s undisputed place as our leading master of both the historical and contemporary thriller

Harris is a masterful storyteller. I’m currently experiencing that terrible phase of cold turkey after finishing something superb

Contemporary echoes abound in this endlessly fascinating exploration of power struggles

A masterful story of political intrigue…a fascinating and absorbing novel

Robert Harris is an incomparable storyteller... It's a brutal tale of murder and mayhem and a tour de force of research and imagination...

I’m a big fan of Robert Harris so I’d like to read his latest, Dictator… Robert is very good at politics and evoking a period

Sinuous, clever and compelling…A fitting end to a magnificent trilogy

Robert Harris brings his Cicero trilogy to a triumphant, compelling and deeply moving conclusion…The three novels are surely the finest fictional treatment of Ancient Rome in the English language…distinguished by a mastery of the sources, sympathetic imagination, political intelligence and narrative skill

Harris’ Cicero is a bit special – a mix of genius and craft, kindness and pomposity, ambition and principle

In Dictator, Robert Harris brings his trilogy on Cicero to a triumphant end. As one who has himself written novels set in the last years of the Roman republic and the first century of empire, I am happy to say that Harris reigns supreme. His Cicero is magnificent; couldn’t conceivably be done better

'Confirms Harris's undisputed place as our leading master of both the historical and contemporary thriller' Daily Mail 
 
'Climatic in every sense . . . I could not put it down' Guardian 
 
There was a time when Cicero held Caesar's life in the palm of his hand. But now Caesar is the dominant figure and Cicero's life is in ruins. Cicero's comeback requires wit, skill and courage. And for a brief and glorious period, the legendary orator is once more the supreme senator in Rome. But politics is never static. And no statesman, however cunning, can safeguard against the ambition and corruption of others. 
 
'The finest fictional treatment of Ancient Rome in the English language' The Scotsman 
 
There are currently two different covers and possibly a mix of stock until December 2022. They will be assigned at random.

Archangel

***OUT NOW, PRECIPICE, THE THRILLING NEW NOVEL FROM ROBERT HARRIS*** 
 
'With Archangel, Robert Harris confirms his position as Britain's pre-eminent literary thriller writer' The Times 
 
'He has a talent for heart-poundingly tense story-telling, and an ability to conjure up atmospheres almost palpable with menace' Sunday Times 
 
When historian Fluke Kelso learns of the existence of a secret notebook belonging to Josef Stalin he is determined to track it down, whatever the consequences. From the violent political intrigue and decadence of modern Moscow he heads north - to the vast forests surrounding the White Sea port of Archangel, and a terrifying encounter with Russia's unburied past.

His best yet: a fast paced thriller, pulsing with suspense, that surpasses even the expertly handled tensions and twists of Fatherland

Robert Harris confirms his position as Britain's pre-eminent literary thriller writer with Archangel

A really gripping narrative, full of suspense and unexpected turns, which will keep you hooked until the climax on its final page... I have never read a thriller based in Russia which has such an authentic feel

Archangel is Harris's strongest book yet, confirming him as the leading current exponent of the intelligent literary thriller

As the suspense builds, the reader needs to turn the pages ever faster... with Harris's controlling foot on the narrative pedal, the reader has no choice but to ride, enthralled, towards the plunging abyss

I remained immersed in this marvellous book until its culmination arrived with depressing swiftness...Readers of Archangel are in for an exciting ride. They will also learn a lot

Nerve tingling... nobody is more adept... a talent for heart-poundingly tense story-telling and an ability to conjure up atmospheres almost palpable with menace

'With Archangel, Robert Harris confirms his position as Britain's pre-eminent literary thriller writer' The Times 
 
'He has a talent for heart-poundingly tense story-telling, and an ability to conjure up atmospheres almost palpable with menace' Sunday Times 
 
When historian Fluke Kelso learns of the existence of a secret notebook belonging to Josef Stalin he is determined to track it down, whatever the consequences. From the violent political intrigue and decadence of modern Moscow he heads north - to the vast forests surrounding the White Sea port of Archangel, and a terrifying encounter with Russia's unburied past.

***OUT NOW, PRECIPICE, THE THRILLING NEW NOVEL FROM ROBERT HARRIS*** 
 
'Immersive' Guardian 
'Stunning' Daily Express 
'Riveting' Telegraph 
 
Victory is close. Vengeance is closer. 
 
Rudi Graf used to dream of sending a rocket to the moon. Instead, he has helped to create the world's most sophisticated weapon: the V2 ballistic missile, capable of delivering a one-ton warhead at three times the speed of sound. 
 
In a desperate gamble to avoid defeat in the winter of 1944, Hitler orders ten thousand to be built. Graf is tasked with firing these lethal 'vengeance weapons' at London. 
 
Kay Caton-Walsh is an officer in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force who joins a unit of WAAFs on a mission to newly liberated Belgium. Armed with little more than a slide rule and a few equations, Kay and her colleagues will attempt to locate and destroy the launch sites. 
 
As the death toll soars, Graf and Kay fight their grim, invisible war - until one final explosion of violence causes their destinies to collide... 
 
'A riveting read with a corker of a twist' Daily Telegraph 
'Supremely readable' Observer 
'Delivers one hell of a punch' Express 
'Captures the real nature of war. Gripping' Ben MacIntyre 
 
Robert Harris, Sunday Times bestselling author, May 2024

A riveting read . . . with a corker of a twist.

V2 is a stunning achievement; a gripping page-turner that remains highly thought-provoking.

An immersive thriller set against a tense historical backdrop . . . For all its pace - you will zip through it in no time - the rewards are in the meta-story. But Harris's deceptively effortless prose means you barely notice. The effect is one of total immersion: you can feel the cold, taste the bacon sandwiches and imagine the trolleys squeaking across the floor.

I want to be the first to say it: Robert Harris scores a direct hit with V2. I was enthralled.

Harris renders the historical detail with his customary verisimilitude.

Harris's books are always supremely readable - he has practically trademarked the term 'master storyteller'.

This is a lively read, as propulsive as the rockets of the title, and it masterfully captures the bleak, jaded atmosphere of the Second World War's death throes.

Robert Harris has always been ingenious at finding ways to write about the Second World War [...] It's highly readable . . . thrillingly tense.

Harris finds the poetry in physics and the soul in engineering. He makes the V2s come to life as vividly as any of his human characters . . . His prose can be wonderfully vivid... Harris has the great gift of readability; there is no living novelist whose books I am likelier to gobble up in one sitting.

[An] astonishingly precise novel... With its tense plot and familiar characters, some readers may anticipate the novel's own parabolic curve. But this means it offers the satisfactions we expect. Spies and informers lurk. Period details are piquant, but not overdone . . . Above all there's suspense . . . V2 will keep you pinned on a compelling trajectory.

Harris returns to form with this exhilarating fusion of fact and fiction.

The king of the page-turning thriller.

Second World War buffs will enjoy Robert Harris's V2.

No novelist is better at evoking the gray resilience of wartime Britain, the moral confusion as the Third Reich staggered toward collapse, and the aroma of a bacon sandwich served in a steamy army canteen. The research, as with all of Harris's books, is impeccable, but worn lightly... In the hands of a lesser writer, this damp squib of history might be an impediment, but in the course of this gripping novel Harris captures something of the real nature of war: good ideas that fail, perverted science, grandiosity, lies and unintended consequences.

The descriptions of rocket production and painstaking photographic interpretation are fascinating in their own right, but Harris takes both historical fact and technical detail to new heights through the daily lives and emotions of the central characters

Once again the richly talented Harris returns to his favourite period of history - before, during and after World War II . . . Told with Harris's meticulous eye for detail, and his appetite for the human story at the heart of any drama, it is as compelling as one of the great British black-and-white war films, with a sprinkling of contemporary detail to add colour.'

You know you're in safe hands when you pick up a Robert Harris novel, and V2 is no exception . . . Harris takes both historical fact and technical detail to new heights.

As addictively readable as all his other thrillers. Think Foyle's War rewritten by Simenon.

As with all Harris's historical adventures, the material of a thriller is slickly woven into the matter of history . . . He feelingly describes a landscape of bombed buildings, grim knickers, grey skies, mud-blue cars and fish-paste sandwiches.

There are very few others . . . that everyone is gagging to see what they publish next but . . . Robert Harris is [one]

His triumph, as in his previous wartime novel Enigma, is to make very complex technical material easy to digest . . . Harris fans are likely to devour it at an equally dramatic pace.

'Immersive' Guardian 
'Stunning' Daily Express 
'Riveting' Telegraph 
 
Victory is close. Vengeance is closer. 
 
Rudi Graf used to dream of sending a rocket to the moon. Instead, he has helped to create the world's most sophisticated weapon: the V2 ballistic missile, capable of delivering a one-ton warhead at three times the speed of sound. 
 
In a desperate gamble to avoid defeat in the winter of 1944, Hitler orders ten thousand to be built. Graf is tasked with firing these lethal 'vengeance weapons' at London. 
 
Kay Caton-Walsh is an officer in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force who joins a unit of WAAFs on a mission to newly liberated Belgium. Armed with little more than a slide rule and a few equations, Kay and her colleagues will attempt to locate and destroy the launch sites. 
 
As the death toll soars, Graf and Kay fight their grim, invisible war - until one final explosion of violence causes their destinies to collide... 
 
'A riveting read with a corker of a twist' Daily Telegraph 
'Supremely readable' Observer 
'Delivers one hell of a punch' Express 
'Captures the real nature of war. Gripping' Ben MacIntyre

Robert Harris

I’m not fond of the word masterpiece, but this is a masterpiece

Brilliantly blurring fact and fiction, Sunday Times bestselling author Robert Harris is back in full force

Dead Good Books - The best crime and thriller books of 2024

Fans of this hugely popular author should lap up this tale that mixes fact with fiction, as is his trademark

'A beautifully crafted novel . . . a dexterous blend of the political and the personal . . . Precipice is Robert Harris's 16th novel, and there hasn’t been a dud among them'

Precipice hones in on those vital summer days when Britain hovered on the brink of war, before plunging into the abyss that arguably destroyed European civilisation

Robert Harris is one of those authors you know you can rely on. His 16th novel, Precipice, is no exception

Robert Harris is a sort of genius . . . I am knocked out by the assurance of his portrait of a time, a relationship, and the perils to which Britain’s leader exposed himself amidst a supreme historic catastrophe. The book is yet another triumph for the author

Few have mastered the alchemy of the popular historical novel quite like Harris

Rollicking . . . Harris’s best book since Conclave

Jaw-dropping . . . Nobody does this sort of yarn better

Gripping . . . One of Harris’s many admirable qualities as a novelist is his boldness

Stunning . . . With his unique eye for slipping between the gaps in history, Harris has created a gripping thriller

Brilliant . . . blurs the line between fact and fiction, illuminating love and power

Seamlessly blends fact and fiction . . . Gripping

Historically literate, politically astute and gripping to the last page

An impressive blend of fact and fiction . . . Beautiful

Gripping . . . One of Harris's many admirable qualities as a novelist is his boldness

A juicy political drama drawn from history

Absorbing . . . Easily on par with Harris's best historical fiction

Heir to le Carré and John Buchan, Harris is the classy English novelist who, in both quality and quantity, reaches the parts most writers cannot reach. The bestseller list seems to keep a place waiting for him, and every book of his is read by the Queen before its publication date. The latest, Precipice, is no exception… Harris is exceptional at taking historical stories and making them irresistibly readable, with a huge emphasis on the writing

Robert Harris is a master of the historical novel

Robert Harris is a master of the historical novel. He has a genius for taking facts and providing just enough invention or exaggeration to make a compelling story . . . Precipice is gripping and plausible

Robert Harris is nothing if not a great storyteller. . . This novel is among Harris’s very best

Robert Harris is on top form . . . [An] exquisitely told story

The Times, 'The 10 best historical fiction books of 2024'

No one does political thrillers quite like Robert Harris

i news, 'The 30 best books for Christmas 2024'

[An] edge-of-your-seat historical thriller

THE BOOK OF THE YEAR, THE TIMES, INDEPENDENT, SPECTATOR, i NEWS 
 
A RICHARD AND JUDY BOOK CLUB AND A SUNDAY TIMES SUMMER READS PICK 2025 
 
‘A riveting tale of politics, war and erotic obsession’ Sunday Times 
 
‘A slam dunk of a plot . . . extraordinary’ Nicholas Coleridge, Independent 
 
Summer 1914. A world on the brink of catastrophe. 
 
In London, 26-year-old Venetia Stanley – aristocratic, clever, bored, reckless – is having a love affair with the Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, a man more than twice her age. He writes to her obsessively, sharing the most sensitive matters of state. 
 
As Asquith reluctantly leads the country into war with Germany, a young intelligence officer is assigned to investigate a leak of top secret documents – and suddenly what was a sexual intrigue becomes a matter of national security that will alter the course of political history. 
 
Seamlessly weaving fact and fiction in a way that no writer does better, Precipice is the thrilling new novel from Robert Harris.

Robert Harris

Praise for Precipice

I’m not fond of the word masterpiece, but this is a masterpiece

Gripping drama

Brilliantly blurring fact and fiction, Sunday Times bestselling author Robert Harris is back in full force

I’m not fond of the word masterpiece, but this is a masterpiece

Gripping drama

Brilliantly blurring fact and fiction, Sunday Times bestselling author Robert Harris is back in full force

I’m not fond of the word masterpiece, but this is a masterpiece

Gripping drama

Brilliantly blurring fact and fiction, Sunday Times bestselling author Robert Harris is back in full force

Books by Robert Harris

Series by Robert Harris

Cicero Trilogy

Articles featuring Robert Harris

New historical fiction books to read in 2025

The Penguin Podcast: episode 6 – books to screen with Robert Harris

11 of the best books set in France

9 beach reads set in Italy

Where to start with Robert Harris

First read: an exclusive extract from Robert Harris’s Act of Oblivion

Great books to give dads this Father’s Day

Books that defined the 1990s

Life according to Robert Harris

7 riveting novels on battles for power

Sign up to the Robert Harris newsletter

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter