Act of Oblivion: The Sunday Times Bestseller

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In 1660, after the Restoration of the monarchy, two of Oliver Cromwell’s soldiers fled to America to escape execution. Under the provisions of the Act of Oblivion, 59 men who signed Charles I's death warrant have been found guilty in absentia of regicide and high treason. And so begins what is an epic journey, in a strange land far away from everything and everyone the fugitives have ever known. Robert Harris is a remarkably versatile novelist whose settings range from Ancient Rome to 800 years in the future. This one sounded particularly interesting, dealing with a manhunt that takes place in 17th century New England, a setting Harris has never written about before.

Act of Oblivion: The Sunday Times Bestseller Kindle Edition Act of Oblivion: The Sunday Times Bestseller Kindle Edition

Harris chooses to focus instead on the lives in exile of two of the regicides, Goffe and Edward Whalley. This means that the reader knows from the beginning exactly where Ned and Will have gone – they have crossed the Atlantic to America, to build new lives for themselves in the like-minded Puritan colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Most of these are either already dead or are quickly caught and brought to justice, but several – including Whalley and Goffe – have disappeared, seemingly without trace. Robert Harris has done it again; woven a riveting tale around real people and events in a realistic reimagining of history. Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties.Harris, deft as ever, weaves a hefty amount of historical fact into the narrative, politics, religion, colonial life, family ties - as well as themes of forgiveness and reconciliation. When he tells the tale from the perspective of the fugitive regicides, you feel for them, want them to escape the horrific fate that awaits them if captured.

Act of Oblivion: Robert Harris - AbeBooks Act of Oblivion: Robert Harris - AbeBooks

Act of Oblivion is the built around the manhunt for two of the remaining fugitives: Edward Whalley and his son-in-law, William Goffe. Act of Oblivion is a fine novel about a divided nation, about invisible wounds that heal slower than visible ones . Harris counterbalances Whalley and Goffe with Richard Nayler, the fictional secretary to the regicide committee of the privy council, who has a powerful personal reason to want them dead. This is not merely a story of a pursuit, but also one about the entire conflict and the reasons behind the struggle between royalists and puritans.Whalley is the only reflective character, confronting the possibility (in the memoir, though not to others) that perhaps God had not been on the side of the Parliamentarians.