Imperium

While I was on hiatus last week, I read Robert Harris' Imperium. Brilliant. Highly recommended. It transports you into the life of a pivotal figure in one of history's most consequential turning points: Cicero's rise to the consulship during the last days of the Roman Republic. Told from the perspective of Cicrero's slave/secretary Tiro (whom we know actually did write a lost biography of Cicero), it traces Cicero's courtroom triumphs in passages worthy of the best legal thriller and Cicero's political maneuverings in passages worthy of the best Washington roman à clef. It's the best book I've read in months. My only complaint is that the cliffhanger ending demands a sequel (or two or three, given how action-packed Cicero's life and times were).