The Second Sleep: A novel

Robert Harris

Nov 2019 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Roy McMillan

About this audiobook

From the internationally best-selling author of Fatherland and the Cicero Trilogy--a chilling and dark new thriller unlike anything Robert Harris has done before.

1468. A young priest, Christopher Fairfax, arrives in a remote Exmoor village to conduct the funeral of his predecessor. The land around is strewn with ancient artefacts--coins, fragments of glass, human bones--which the old parson used to collect. Did his obsession with the past lead to his death?
Fairfax becomes determined to discover the truth. Over the course of the next six days, everything he believes--about himself, his faith, and the history of his world--will be tested to destruction.

Ratings and reviews

A great story ruined by an unsatisfying ending. Every now & then, you come across a book/movie that holds your attention from the first second to the last, then it just ends. No resolution, no ending. As though the writer decided to stop writing mid-story & produce the work as is, unfinished. This is one of those works. The narrator is fantastic. The characters are captivating. The plot, genius. But there's no ending. No payoff for the time we invest as a reader. Very disappointing.

About the author

ROBERT HARRIS is the author of twelve novels: Fatherland, Enigma, Archangel, Pompeii, Imperium, The Ghost Writer, Conspirata, The Fear Index, An Officer and a Spy, Dictator, Conclave, and Munich. Several of his books have been adapted to film, most recently The Ghost Writer. His work has been translated into thirty-seven languages. He lives in the village of Kintbury, England, with his wife, Gill Hornby.