Act of Oblivion, by Robert Harris

This is the best book I’ve read so far this year. Like my last non-fiction read, Alice Hunt’s Republic, I picked it up because it deals with the time period in history that I’m currently researching for my own novel. But I also knew that Robert Harris writes brilliantly readable and well-researched historical fiction, having enjoyed his Pompeii and the Cicero trilogy. Act of Oblivion did not disappoint.

The historical background for this novel is the aftermath of the English Civil War, once Charles II has been restored to the throne. While most of the people who supported Parliament in the interregnum were given amnesties when the monarchy was restored (which they pretty much had to do, because so many people switched sides back and forth in those years depending on who was in power). The exception was the men who actually signed King Charles I’s death warrant: they were condemned to death and, since most of them either fled England or went into hiding, there was an extended manhunt to find them.

Two of the regicides, committed and devout Puritans, fled to the New England colonies, believing that among Puritan settlers there they would find a safe haven. The story that unfolds in the novel is that of those two men, who are real historical characters, though Harris rounds out the little history tells us of them into two very distinct and believable men. He also invents a third character, the man relentlessly devoted to finding them for reasons that are as much personal as political. This drama from more than four centuries ago feels as vital and vivid as if it were unfolding before us in real time. I really loved this book.