The Second Sleep Audiobook By Robert Harris cover art

The Second Sleep

A novel

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The Second Sleep

By: Robert Harris
Narrated by: Roy McMillan
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About this listen

From the internationally best-selling author of Fatherland and the Cicero Trilogy - a chilling and dark new thriller unlike anything Robert Harris has done before.

1468. A young priest, Christopher Fairfax, arrives in a remote Exmoor village to conduct the funeral of his predecessor. The land around is strewn with ancient artifacts - coins, fragments of glass, human bones - which the old parson used to collect. Did his obsession with the past lead to his death?

Fairfax becomes determined to discover the truth. Over the course of the next six days, everything he believes - about himself, his faith, and the history of his world - will be tested to destruction.

©2019 Robert Harris (P)2019 Random House Audio
Historical Political Suspense Espionage Fiction

Critic reviews

“It should be enough that Robert Harris, in his earlier books, makes the lives of Cicero and Caesar even more fascinating, and brings to vivid life the citizens of ancient Rome and 1930’s Munich. With The Second Sleep he cracks open The Time To Come, making his new book a barnburner, leaving the reader wanting only one thing: more, please.” (Tom Hanks)

“In the tradition of A Canticle for Leibowitz, Harris presents an extraordinary and terrifyingly plausible vision of a post-technological future, a novel that’s at once an adventure story and a meditation on truth and faith. You’ll never look at your iPhone in quite the same way again.” (Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven)

“Ingenious.... The historical thriller hinges on an apocalyptic event and induces a shiver of dread in our present times.... 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.” (William Skidelsky, The Financial Times)

What listeners say about The Second Sleep

Highly rated for:

Intriguing Premise Thought-provoking Story Excellent Narration Believable World-building Captivating Performance
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  • Overall
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    3 out of 5 stars

Very disappointing ending

Story was pretty cool but we were waiting for some clever ending to see things up. Alas. Not so.

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1 person found this helpful

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An interesting effort

I am a great admirer of Robert Harris. He is fast becoming the best novelist in the historical fiction genre. This novel is quite different from anything he’s written and not as successful; nevertheless, it’s a worthwhile and timely cautionary tale for our world today.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A VERY GOOD STORY! Well Written. Well Narrated.

I was compelled to read to the end because I could not predict how the story would wrap up, nor who would survive.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Post-apocalyptic story

If you like this genre, you’ll probably like this book. Narrator is quite good. Story, not so much. It follows the typical post-apocalyptic formula. The only thing that was somewhat unique was the reason behind the collapse of civilization as we know it. I don’t want to insert a spoiler into this review, and won’t discuss that reason.

I expected more from Robert Harris.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Forewarning. So Robert Harris. Brilliant

Very different story, disturbing and compelling. Enjoyed it from beginning to end. I think a pretty accurate picture of our future.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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A Gripping Cautionary Tale

An engaging story, a poignant message and perfectly executed. A very good reader. Loved every bit of it, including the ending - what else could have they done? Every plot and subplot came to their logical conclusion.

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Audible Bliss

This book is why I joined Audible in the first place. Sure, I could buy a physical copy and read it myself, but some books just beg to be LISTENED TO. This is one of them. The narrator, Roy McMillan, is just sublime- without peer. I won't talk about the story, except to say it's quite wonderful, with some nice turns and characters you'll find it hard to part company with. Happy Reading!

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

A bit slow to start with a terrible ending

I didn’t really enjoy this all that much. I felt the overall story was interesting, but it just wasn’t fleshed out as well as it could have been. Character development was adequate, but far from great. The ending felt like the author got tired of writing the book and looked for an escape hatch to end it quickly; and exactly in the spot I felt the book was becoming the most interesting. Overall I was disappointed given the good reviews.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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EPIC!

What a fabulous, engaging book! Sci-fi meets the Middle Ages meets the future. Riveting; I was immediately drawn into the story from the first page down to the very last word. Will there be a sequel, perhaps? No, I think I liked the finality of the ending. Loved this book!

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And?

A not particularly interesting trip to nowhere in particular. Really not much else to say

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