- Author: Robert Harris
- Publisher: Random House Audio
- Published: September 1, 2026
I’ve started a lot of Robert Harris books, but not finished many of them. He’s written nearly 20 novels, so it’s not surprising that some fit my taste better than others. Agrippa was one I finished, and quickly. It has the same style as his Cicero trilogy: a fake biography/autobiography. Agrippa was the right-hand man of Augustus, the first Roman emperor, and this story is written from the point of view of Agrippa at the end of his life. The best word I have for Harris’s writing style is “punchy”. The book opens like this:
I came into the world feet-first — a dangerous way to live.
Aegri partus, the doctors called it. A painful birth.
My mother did not survive.
I heard an interview with the author where he said his writing is designed to be read aloud, and I believe him. His writing is short, sharp, and always favors action over description. That style is probably even more pronounced in this book, as it’s mimicking the voice of an old soldier. But there’s also a lot of imagination involved here, because we know very little about Agrippa and almost none of his writing survives. In contrast to Cicero, Agrippa’s life is a blank canvas.
This ended up being my favorite Harris novel so far. He has some strong opinions and really paints a brutal picture of Augustus, who seems, unfortunately, to have become a hero for some in Silicon Valley. There’s also a major twist late in the book that genuinely made me rethink much of what I’d read to that point.