The Second Sleep

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?

'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

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 becoming anxious as he slowly picks his way across a countryside strewn with the ancient artifacts of a civilization 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.

'[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.