false 50179359 2154158 880 0812974611 9780812974614 277 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1157748124m/880.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1157748124s/880.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/880.Pompeii 3.58 1838
But the carefree lifestyle and gorgeous weather belie an impending cataclysm, and only one man is worried. The young engineer Marcus Attilius Primus has just taken charge of the Aqua Augusta, the enormous aqueduct that brings fresh water to a quarter of a million people in nine towns around the Bay of Naples. His predecessor has disappeared. Springs are failing for the first time in generations. And now there is a crisis on the Augusta’s sixty-mile main line—somewhere to the north of Pompeii, on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius.

Attilius—decent, practical, and incorruptible—promises Pliny, the famous scholar who commands the navy, that he can repair the aqueduct before the reservoir runs dry. His plan is to travel to Pompeii and put together an expedition, then head out to the place where he believes the fault lies. But Pompeii proves to be a corrupt and violent town, and Attilius soon discovers that there are powerful forces at work—both natural and man-made—threatening to destroy him.

With his trademark elegance and intelligence, Robert Harris, bestselling author of Archangel and Fatherland, re-creates a world on the brink of disaster.


From the Hardcover edition.]]> 575 3.60 8952 1237 2003 5 0 false Tue May 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 23 10:30:52 -0700 2009 Mon May 18 14:26:42 -0700 2009
I thoroughly enjoyed this fictionalized account of events leading up to the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, and the narration was terrific.

It's a tribute to Harris' skill that even though you know going in exactly how the st...more...]]>