Robert Harris has 27 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 19 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.3★ across 149 ratings. The most-rated is Imperium.
Imperium
Summary
When Tiro, the confidential secretary of a Roman senator, opens the door to a terrified stranger on a cold November morning, he sets in motion a chain of events which will eventually propel his master into one of the most famous courtroom dramas in history. The stranger is a Sicilian, a victim of the island's corrupt Roman governor, Verres. The senator is Cicero, a brilliant young lawyer and spellbinding orator, determined to attain imperium - supreme power in the state.This is the starting-point of Robert Harris's most accomplished novel to date. Compellingly written in Tiro's voice, it takes us inside the violent, treacherous world of Roman politics, to describe how one man - clever, compassionate, devious, vulnerable - fought to reach the top. Sometimes it is foolish to articulate an ambition too early - exposing it prematurely to the laughter and scepticism of the world can destroy it before it is even properly born. But sometimes the opposite occurs, and the very act of mentioning a thing makes it suddenly seem possible, even plausible. That was how it was that night. When Cicero pronounced the word 'consul' he planted it in the ground like a standard for us all to admire. And for a moment we glimpsed the brilliant, starry future through his eyes, and saw that he was right: that if he took down Verres, he had a chance; that he might - just, with luck, go all the way to the summit...'
©2006 Robert Harris (P)2014 AudioGo Ltd. Published by Random House Audiobooks
Munich
Summary
September 1938 Hitler is determined to start a war. Chamberlain is desperate to preserve the peace. The issue is to be decided in a city that will forever afterward be notorious for what takes place there. Munich. As Chamberlain's plane judders across the Channel and the Fürher's train steams relentlessly south from Berlin, two young men travel with secrets of their own. Hugh Legat is one of Chamberlain's private secretaries, Paul Hartmann a German diplomat and member of the anti-Hitler resistance. Great friends at Oxford before Hitler came to power, they haven't seen one another since they were last in Munich together six years earlier. Now, as the future of Europe hangs in the balance, their paths are destined to cross again. When the stakes are this high, who are you willing to betray? Your friends, your family, your country, or your conscience?
©2017 Robert Harris (P)2017 Penguin Random House Canada
An Officer and a Spy
Summary
They lied to protect their country. He told the truth to save it. A gripping historical thriller from the best-selling author of Fatherland. January 1895: On a freezing morning in the heart of Paris, an army officer, Georges Picquart, witnesses a convicted spy, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, being publicly humiliated in front of 20,000 spectators baying ‘Death to the Jew!’ The officer is rewarded with promotion: Picquart is made the French army’s youngest colonel and put in command of ‘the Statistical Section’ - the shadowy intelligence unit that tracked down Dreyfus. The spy, meanwhile, is given a punishment of medieval cruelty: Dreyfus is shipped off to a lifetime of solitary confinement on Devil’s Island - unable to speak to anyone, not even his guards, his case seems closed forever. But gradually Picquart comes to believe there is something rotten at the heart of the Statistical Section. When he discovers another German spy operating on French soil, his superiors are oddly reluctant to pursue it. Despite official warnings, Picquart persists, and soon the officer and the spy are in the same predicament.... Narrated by Picquart, An Officer and a Spy is a compelling recreation of a scandal that became the most famous miscarriage of justice in history. Compelling, too, are the echoes for our modern world: an intelligence agency gone rogue, justice corrupted in the name of national security, a newspaper witch hunt of a persecuted minority, and the age-old instinct of those in power to cover-up their crimes.
©2013 Robert Harris (P)2013 Random House Audiobooks
Lustrum
Summary
Rome, 63 BC. In a city on the brink of acquiring a vast empire, seven men are struggling for power. Cicero is consul, Caesar his ruthless young rival, Pompey the republic's greatest general, Crassus its richest man, Cato a political fanatic, Catilina a psychopath, Clodius an ambitious playboy. The stories of these real historical figures - their alliances and betrayals, their cruelties and seductions, their brilliance and their crimes - are all interleaved to form this epic novel. Its narrator is Tiro, a slave who serves as confidential secretary to the wily, humane, complex Cicero. He knows all his master's secrets - a dangerous position to be in. From the discovery of a child's mutilated body, through judicial execution and a scandalous trial, to the brutal unleashing of the Roman mob, Lustrum is a study in the timeless enticements and horrors of power.
©2009 Robert Harris (P)2014 AudioGo Ltd. Published by Random House Audiobooks
Dictator
Summary
There was a time when Cicero held Caesar’s life in the palm of his hand. But now Caesar is the dominant figure, and Cicero’s life is in ruins. Exiled, separated from his wife and children, his possessions confiscated, his life constantly in danger, Cicero is tormented by the knowledge that he has sacrificed power for the sake of his principles. His comeback requires wit, skill and courage - and, for a brief and glorious period, the legendary orator is once more the supreme senator in Rome. But politics is never static, and no statesman, however cunning, can safeguard against the ambition and corruption of others. Riveting and tumultuous, Dictator encompasses some of the most epic events in human history yet is also an intimate portrait of a brilliant, flawed, frequently fearful yet ultimately brave man - a hero for his time and for ours.
©2015 Robert Harris (P)2015 Random House AudioBooks
Pompeii
Summary
A sweltering week in late August. Where better to enjoy the last days of summer than on the beautiful Bay of Naples? All along the coast, the Roman Empire's richest citizens are relaxing in their luxurious villas. The world's largest navy lies peacefully at anchor in Misenum. The tourists are spending their money in the seaside resorts of Baiae, Herculaneum and Pompeii. Only one man is worried. The engineer Marcus Attilius Primus has just taken charge of the Aqua Augusta, the enormous aqueduct which brings fresh water to a quarter of a million people in nine towns around the Bay. Springs are failing for the first time in generations. His predecessor has disappeared. And now there is a crisis on the Augusta's sixty-mile main line - somewhere to the north of Pompeii, on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius. Attilius - decent, practical, incorruptible - promises Pliny, the famous scholar who commands the navy, that he can repair the aqueduct before the reservoir runs dry. But as he heads out towards Vesuvius he is about to discover there are forces which even the world's only superpower can't control. Pompeii recreates in spellbinding detail one of the most famous natural disasters of all time. And by focusing on the characters of an engineer and a scientist, it offers an entirely original perspective on the Roman world.
©2003 Robert Harris (P)2014 AudioGo Ltd. Published by Random House Audiobooks
Conclave
Summary
What happens behind the closed doors of the Roman Catholic Conclave? The mysterious rituals surrounding the congregation of cardinal electors responsible for electing a new pope is brilliantly researched by Robert Harris, bringing an age old tradition to life. Set against the swirling of religious theory comes an explosive political drama that will have you on the edge of your seat. The Pope is dead. Behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel, 118 cardinals from all over the globe will cast their votes in the world's most secretive election. They are holy men. But they have ambition. And they have rivals. Over the next 72 hours, one of them will become the most powerful spiritual figure on earth.
©2016 Robert Harris (P)2016 Random House Audiobooks
Bad Samaritans
Summary
With irreverent wit, an engagingly personal style, and a battery of real-life examples, Ha-Joon Chang blasts holes in the "World Is Flat" orthodoxy of Thomas Friedman and other neo-liberal economists who argue that only unfettered capitalism and wide-open international trade can lift struggling nations out of poverty. On the contrary, Chang shows, today's economic superpowers - from the United States to Britain to his native South Korea - all attained prosperity by shameless protectionism and government intervention in industry. We in the wealthy nations have conveniently forgotten this fact, telling ourselves a fairy tale about the magic of free trade and - via our proxies such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization - ramming policies that suit ourselves down the throat of the developing world. Unlike typical economists who construct models of how economies are supposed to behave, Chang examines the past: what has actually happened. His pungently contrarian history demolishes one pillar after another of free-market mythology. We treat patents and copyrights as sacrosanct - but developed our own industries by studiously copying others' technologies. We insist that centrally planned economies stifle growth - but many developing countries had higher GDP growth before they were pressured into deregulating their economies. Both justice and common sense, Chang argues, demand that we reevaluate the policies we force on weaker nations. Bad Samaritans calls on America to return to its abandoned role, embodied in programs like the Marshall Plan, to offer a helping hand, instead of a closed fist, to countries struggling to follow in our footsteps.
©2007 Ha-Joon Chang (P)2007 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
V2
Summary
The first rocket will take five minutes to hit London. You have six minutes to stop the second. From the best-selling author of Fatherland and Munich comes a WWII thriller about a German rocket engineer, a former actress turned British spy, and the Nazi rocket program. Rudi Graf is an engineer who always dreamed of sending rockets to the moon. But instead, he finds himself working alongside Wernher von Braun, launching V2 rockets at London for the Nazis from a bleak seaside town in occupied Holland. As the SS increases its scrutiny on the project, Graf, an engineer more than a soldier, has to muster all of his willpower to toe the party line. And when rumors of a defector circulate through the German ranks, Graf becomes a prime suspect. Meanwhile, Kay Caton-Walsh, a young English intelligence officer, is living through the turmoil of war. After she and her lover, an RAF officer, are caught in a V2 attack, she volunteers to ship out for newly liberated Belgium. Armed with little more than a slide rule and a few equations, Kay and her colleagues hope to locate and destroy the launch sites. But at this stage in the war it’s hard to know who, if anyone, she can trust. As the death toll soars, these twin stories play out against the background of the German missile campaign during the Second World War. And what the listener comes to understand is that Kay’s and Graf’s destinies are on a collision course
©2020 Robert Harris (P)2020 Random House Audio
The Second Sleep
Summary
From the international best-selling author of Fatherland and Munich, a gripping mystery and a fascinating cautionary tale. "All civilizations consider themselves invulnerable; history warns us that none is." 1468. A young priest, Christopher Fairfax, arrives in a remote English village to conduct the funeral of his predecessor. The land around is strewn with ancient artifacts - coins, fragments of glass, human bones - that the old parson used to collect. Did his obsession with the past lead to his death? As Fairfax is drawn more deeply into the isolated community, everything he believes - about himself, his faith, and the history of his world - is tested to destruction.
©2019 Canal K Limited (P)2020 Penguin Random House Canada
Archangel
Summary
When historian Fluke Kelso learns of the existence of a secret notebook belonging to Josef Stalin he is determined to track it down, whatever the consequences. From the violent political intrigue and decadence of modern Moscow he heads north - to the vast forests surrounding the White Sea port of Archangel, and a terrifying encounter with Russia's unburied past.
©1998 Robert Harris (P)2014 AudioGo Ltd. Published by Random House Audiobooks
J'accuse
Summary
Paris, janvier 1895. Georges Picquart, un officier de l'armée, assiste devant vingt mille personnes hurlant "À mort le juif !" à l'humiliation publique d'un capitaine accusé d'espionnage : Alfred Dreyfus. Picquart est promu : il devient le plus jeune colonel de l'armée française et prend la tête de la section de statistique - le service de renseignements qui a traqué Dreyfus. Dreyfus, lui, est condamné au bagne à perpétuité sur l'île du Diable, il n'a le droit de parler à personne, pas même à ses gardiens, et son affaire semble classée pour toujours. Mais, peu à peu, Picquart commence à relever des éléments troublants dans l'enquête, tout en lisant les lettres de Dreyfus à sa femme dans lesquelles celui-ci ne cesse de clamer son innocence. Et quand le colonel découvre un espion allemand opérant sur le sol français, ses supérieurs refusent de l'écouter. En dépit des avertissements officiels, Picquart persiste et va se retrouver lui aussi dans une situation délicate. Gaumont, Légende et R.P. Productions présentent : Jean Dujardin, Louis Garrel, Emmanuelle Seigner, Grégory Gadebois dans J’ACCUSE, un film de Roman Polanski. Scénario : Robert Harris et Roman Polanski d’après le livre de Robert Harris ; Musique : Alexandre Desplat ; Directeur de la photographie : Pawel Edelman, PSC ; Montage : Hervé de Luze ; Décors : Jean Rabasse, ADC ; Costumes : Pascaline Chavanne ; 1er Assistant Réalisateur : Hubert Engamarre ; Casting : Michaël Laguens ; Son : Lucien Balibar, Aymeric Devoldère, Cyril Holtz et Niels Barletta ; Effets visuels : Jérémie Leroux et Alain Carsoux ; Coiffure et Maquillage : Agathe Dupuis, Vesna Peborde et Cédric Kerguillec ; Directeur de production : Cyrille Bragnier ; Coproducteurs : Luca Barbareschi et Paolo Del Brocco ; Producteurs associés : Axelle Boucaï et Axel Décis ; Producteurs exécutifs : Roman Abramovich – Kinoprime Foundation, Kenosis, Zbigniew Raczynski & Lukasz Raczynski – Horus Movies, Kasia Nabialczyk, Costantino Margiotta ; Une production Légende et R.P. Productions ; Une coproduction franco-italienne avec Gaumont, France 2 Cinéma, France 3 Cinéma, Eliseo Cinéma et Rai Cinéma ; Avec la participation de France Télévisions, OCS et Canal+ ; Avec le soutien de la région Île-de-France ; En partenariat avec le CNC et le Centre National du Cinéma et de l’image animée ; Avec la participation de Entourage Pictures ; En association avec Palatine Étoile 16, Optimum Développement et L’Arbre Holding ; Produit par Alain Goldman.
©2014 / 2019 Éditions Plon, un département d’Édi8 / Lizzie, un département d'Univers Poche, Paris. Traduit par Natalie Zimmermann (P)2019 Lizzie, un département d'Univers Poche, Paris
Fatherland
Summary
The New York Times best-selling classic of alternate history, a murder mystery set in a world where the Nazis won World War II - for fans of The Plot Against America and The Man in the High Castle. Berlin, 1964. The Greater German Reich stretches from the Rhine to the Urals and keeps an uneasy peace with its nuclear rival, the United States. As the Fatherland prepares for a grand celebration honoring Adolf Hitler's 75th birthday and anticipates a conciliatory visit from US president Joseph Kennedy and ambassador Charles Lindbergh, a detective of the Kriminalpolizei is called out to investigate the discovery of a dead body in a lake near Berlin's most prestigious suburb. But when Xavier March discovers the identity of the body, he also uncovers signs of a conspiracy that could go to the very top of the German Reich. And with the Gestapo just one step behind, March, together with the American journalist Charlotte Maguire, is caught up in a race to discover and reveal the truth - a truth that has already killed, a truth that could topple governments, a truth that will change history.
©2017 Robert Harris (P)2017 Random House Audio
Song of a Nation
Summary
The greatest story never told, this formidable and gorgeous biography documents the amazing and controversial short life of Calixa Lavallée - the composer of "O Canada" - and the tumult of 19th-century North America. The story of "O Canada" is one of the great unknowns of our collective lives. No longer. This formidable and gorgeous tale documents the history of this song of a nation, from its origins in French Canada in the years just after Confederation to the surprisingly controversial story of its adoption as Canada's national anthem 100 years later. Song of a Nation is also the extraordinary and mysterious story of Calixa Lavallée - the anthem's French-Canadian composer - and his compelling, almost unbelievable personal journey: his early life as a blackface minstrel, travelling throughout the United States for more than a decade; his service for the Union Army in the American Civil War; his production of the first opera in Quebec; and, in a final act, becoming a leading figure in American music education. To understand "O Canada", and to understand the man who wrote it, is to return to the Canada of the mid-1800s, just forming as a nation, bringing together ancient racial hatreds and novel political possibilities. More than just a song, in its own story "O Canada" evokes the history of a country creating an identity for itself out of the unique forces and rivalries of French and English Canada, and looking to the infinite possibilities that lay ahead.
©2018 Robert Harris (P)2018 McClelland & Stewart
Enigma
Summary
It is March 1943 and the War hangs in the balance.... At Bletchley Park, Tom Jericho, a brilliant young codebreaker, is facing a double nightmare. The Germans have unaccountably changed their U-boat Enigma code, threatening a massive Allied defeat. As suspicion grows that there may be a spy inside Bletchley, and Jericho is suspected, his girlfriend, the beautiful and mysterious Claire Romilly, suddenly disappears. With the help of Claire's best friend, Hester, Jericho sets out to find Claire, clear his name and unmask the spy. The answers will change his life forever. Steeped in the atmosphere of wartime England, based around an actual event, Enigma is a thriller of genius: a compelling mystery of codes and codebreaking, love and betrayal set inside the birthplace of the secret state.
©2004 Robert Harris (P)2004 Random House Audiobooks
Slow Burner
Summary
A woman watches her marriage implode over text message and decides that ignorance is not bliss in this bitterly satisfying short mystery by the New York Times bestselling author of Lady in the Lake. Liz Kelsey promised herself she’d never again spy on her feckless husband, Phil. But then she discovers a string of suggestive texts on his secret burner phone. Even worse, he’s flirting with the woman who shook their unstable marriage once before. But knowledge is power. What’s more dangerous - what Liz knows or what Phil doesn’t know? Laura Lippman’s Slow Burner is part of Hush, a collection of six stories, ranging from political mysteries to psychological thrillers, in which deception can be a matter of life and death. Each piece can be read or listened to in one truly chilling sitting.
©2020 Laura Lippman. (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
The Valkyrie Chronicles: Titans
Summary
The Valkyrie and the Asgard come up against an enemy unlike any they have faced before. Kara comes up against an enemy she does not know how to confront. Her brute force fighting skills are useless against this new enemy, and she must match wits with the Titan leader in a battle of wills. Surprises abound and awkward alliances are formed.
©2014 Erik Schubach (P)2015 Erik Schubach
The Ghost
Summary
The moment I heard how McAra died I should have walked away. I can see that now... The narrator of Robert Harris's gripping new novel is a professional ghostwriter - cynical, mercenary, and with a nice line in deadpan humour. Accustomed to working with fading rock stars and minor celebrities, he jumps at the chance to ghost the memoirs of Britain's former prime minister, especially as it means flying to the American resort of Martha's Vineyard in the middle of winter and finishing the book in the seclusion of a luxurious house. But it doesn't take him long to realise he has made a terrible mistake. His predecessor on the project died in circumstances that were distinctly suspicious, and the ex-prime minister turns out to be a man with secrets in his past that are returning to haunt him - secrets with the power to kill.
©2007 Robert Harris (P)2014 AudioGo Ltd. Published by Random House Audiobooks
The Fear Index
Summary
His name is carefully guarded from the general public but within the secretive inner circles of the ultra-rich Dr Alex Hoffmann is a legend – a visionary scientist whose computer software turns everything it touches into gold. Together with his partner, an investment banker, Hoffmann has developed a revolutionary form of artificial intelligence that tracks human emotions, enabling it to predict movements in the financial markets with uncanny accuracy. His hedge fund, based in Geneva, makes billions. But then in the early hours of the morning, while he lies asleep with his wife, a sinister intruder breaches the elaborate security of their lakeside house. So begins a waking nightmare of paranoia and violence as Hoffmann attempts, with increasing desperation, to discover who is trying to destroy him. His quest forces him to confront the deepest questions of what it is to be human. By the time night falls over Geneva, the financial markets will be in turmoil and Hoffmann's world – and ours – transformed forever.
©2011 Robert Harris (P)2011 Random House Audiobooks
A Wedding on the Riviera
Summary
Soundings and Choc Lit present the audio edition of A Wedding on the Riviera. When out-of-work actor Ryan Calder attends a wedding as the plus-one of successful businesswoman, Nadine Wells, he doesn’t expect to get in a scuffle with the groom. But Ryan recognises the groom from another wedding where the same man made a quick getaway, taking the wedding money and leaving the bride heartbroken. It seems he's struck again and Nadine's poor friend is the target. With a group of friends, Ryan and Nadine hatch a plan that will take them to the French Riviera, hot on the heels of the crooked groom. But could their scheme also bring them closer together?
©2020 Evonne Wareham (P)2020 Soundings