Pompeii Book Review

Pompeii, by Robert Harris, is a fascinating account of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius seen from the perspective of a few citizens from the surrounding towns. The main character is Marcus Attilius Primus, or just Attilius, who is an engineer that is named the new aquarius of Augusta after the previous one goes missing and just in time for the Aqua Augusta to break. Throughout the book, we realize that the Augusta broke down due to the up and coming eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which is unknown to most of the characters until the very end of the book. This book is interspersed with factual accounts of the eruption, but the main story of the book is the slow realisation of Attilius about the eruption and then his frantic tries to save as many people as possible. In this book, we find out much about ancient Roman society (which is eerily similar to our society in regards to its politicians), while experiencing the surprise and horror of the eruption. The most amazing part of this book is Harris' ability to incorporate real historical figures into the book, while still creating an extremely exciting and interesting story about the real life eruption of Mount Vesuvius. I really enjoyed this book, and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in ancient Roman society, volcanoes and possibly even detective novels because it was similar in that you had to pick up all the clues to figure out what was happening. I give this book 4/5 stars.