The Second Sleep

By: Robert Harris

Narrated by: Roy McMillan

Brought to you by Penguin.

THE LATEST NOVEL FROM ROBERT HARRIS: chosen as a Book of the Year by The Times, Sunday Times, Guardian, Telegraph, Mail on Sunday, and Express

WHAT IF YOUR FUTURE LIES IN THE PAST?
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'One word: wonderful. Two words: compulsive reading. Three words: buy it tomorrow. Four words: tonight, if possible.' STEPHEN KING
'A thoroughly absorbing, page-turning narrative.' SUNDAY TIMES
'Genuinely thrilling.' DAILY TELEGRAPH
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Dusk is gathering as a young priest, Christopher Fairfax, rides across a silent land.

It's a crime to be out after dark, and Fairfax knows he must arrive at his destination - a remote village in the wilds of Exmoor - before night falls and curfew is imposed.

He's lost and he's becoming anxious as he slowly picks his way across a countryside strewn with the ancient artefacts of a civilisation that seems to have ended in cataclysm.

What Fairfax cannot know is that, in the days and weeks to come, everything he believes in will be tested to destruction, as he uncovers a secret that is as dangerous as it is terrifying ...
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'[Harris] takes us on a thrilling ride while serving up serious food for thought.' SUNDAY EXPRESS

'A truly surprising future-history thriller. Fabulous, really.' EVENING STANDARD

'The book's real power lies in its between-the-lines warning that our embrace of the internet represents some kind of sleepwalk into oblivion. It's a provocative, tub-thumping sci-fi of which H. G. Wells might have been proud.' DAILY MAIL

'Harris' latest work intelligently warps historical fiction and tackles issues of religion, science and the apocalypse in the process. As he flexes his imagination, you will be left pondering as often as you are page-turning.' HERALD

'A brilliantly imaginative thriller' READER'S DIGEST

LOOK OUT FOR ROBERT'S NEW THRILLER, V2 - COMING AUTUMN 2020

© Robert Harris 2019 (P) Penguin Audio 2019

Critic reviews

A thoroughly absorbing, page-turning narrative in which the author, with his customary storytelling skills, pulls us ever deeper into the imaginative world he has created. It [also] poses challenging questions about the meaning of the past, the idea of progress and the stability of civilisation. It is a fine addition to Harris’s diverse body of work.

A return to the type of high-concept novel that made his name . . . [T]he writing is elegant and pacy. The characters are fleshed out and the plot zips along.

A truly surprising future-history thriller. Fabulous, really.

Harris is rightly praised as the master of the intelligent thriller. Genuinely thrilling, wonderfully conceived and entirely without preaching, it probes the nature of history, of collective memory and forgetting, and exposes the fragility of modern civilisation.

Harris's bleak imagined world issues a clarion call to the present, urging us to recognise the value of progress, the importance of woolly concepts like liberalism and the rule of law, and all the other ideals we’ve spent generations fighting for yet seem prepared to sacrifice on the altar of populism. For make no mistake, this novel [is] very much about the here and now . . . Harris is a master of plotting and, in elegant, understated third-person prose, he ratchets the tension ever upwards . . . this is nothing if not a page-turner.

Reading Robert Harris’s historical thrillers feels like attending a Simon Schama lecture on a roller-coaster – you come away with a new perspective on history while feeling dizzy with excitement . . . In The Second Sleep he takes us on a thrilling ride while serving up serious food for thought . . . I doubt there is a living writer who is better at simultaneously making readers’ adrenaline pump while their brains whirr.

When Harris is at his best — and here he is — he writes with a skill and ingenuity that few other novelists can match. In this case, the usual page turning pleasures are joined by something else: a sense that, through his historical-futuristic setting, Harris has found a unique vantage point to comment on the present . . . This is a novel that not only makes you smile at its author’s brilliance, but induces a shiver of dread at how real it all seems.

With a story of forbidden love joining larger themes, this vividly imagined, brilliantly clever novel is – as you’d expect from the author of Fatherland and Archangel – an absolutely class act.

Harris . . . is a fearless writer. The Second Sleep races along at breakneck speed. The prose is pure, elegant, never tricky and his imagination knows no bounds.

It is a strange premise for a thriller, but Robert Harris is such a wily old hand that it is a pleasure to accompany him on his time travels.

Lost interest

A sf story set after the global technological meltdown when the Christian church resumes its dark ages habits of suppression and persecution written by Robert harris so what could go wrong? Boring predictable one dimensional tv soap characters, really lame love subplots, gloomy atmosphere with no humor and no engaging storyline. I lost interest with 2 hours to go. Sigh.

Highly recommended

When one combines the wizardry if Harris’ narrative genius with an excellent narrator one is left with an addictive 9 hours of delight. I could not stop listening. A thrilling story full of surprises to the very end.

Dark, so dark, so well concocted

Read it any review spoils it The best since Fatherland Kicks one's mind and crushes ones hart, making Pandora's box completely empty

The less you know, the better this journey will be

Robert Harris is a phenomenal writer, and The Second Sleep is no exception. This is a gripping, thought-provoking novel that unfolds moment by moment, almost like a slow burn. There are points where things occur which put everything into context as the mysteries unravel, and they leave you feeling startled as well as delighted as you begin to understand just what's happened, and what's happening.

I think that it's best to know very little about this novel, so you can fully experience the carefully crafted moments of revelation, so I'll not say anything about the plot, apart from saying that the characters are well-imagined, the setting is interesting and engaging, and the pacing is masterful. Roy McMillan reads the novel with skill and style, voicing the characters well and giving a real sense of personality to each of them.

If you enjoyed Harris' historical novels, you'll enjoy The Second Sleep. Highly recommended.

Engaging and (almost) believable

A post apocalyptic world that’s similar to the dark ages. Throw in a murder mystery and have Robert Harris write it. Nearly perfect.

No spoilers but to say there a few points where it lets itself down but certainly well worth a listen.

Reminds me very much of Pullman’s His Dark Materials stories.

Excellent narration.