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The River Through Rome
- Narrated by: Melanie Crawley
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
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Publisher's summary
In the waning years of the Roman Republic, a talented engineer is tapped to bring water to one of the city’s most notorious slums. Nonius believes he is doing good for his city, but he isn’t counting on the many obstacles that prevent anything from getting done in those turbulent times. His troubles multiply when he falls in love with beautiful, haunted Amaris, concubine of a senator who is determined to stop Nonius’ aqueduct from going through. The clash between them runs from the bedrooms to the streets to the courtrooms of the Eternal City, in one of the most fateful periods in her history.
Nicholas Nicastro (Empire of Ashes, The Isle of Stone, Hell’s Half-Acre) writes the kind of vivid, deeply immersive historical fiction that brings the past to unforgettable life. In The River Through Rome, he tells a story that is both faithful to its time, and hauntingly presages our own.
“This historical novel gives readers a view of ancient Rome from the rare perspective of a good man just trying to do an honest job...Nicastro is an experienced and accomplished writer and often a prose poet in his descriptions of Nonius and Amaris: 'If his life was a stem, she was the rose,’ and ‘Trapped there, between the Scylla of oblivion and the Charybdis of inconsequence he was powerless to go on.’ This is a Rome falling fast from greatness, though oblivious to the descent. The Republic is dead; Octavian will soon style himself ‘Augustus,’ a god. Sycophancy and cynicism are the orders of the day. The captivating book does, in fact, provide an excellent slice of history...An intriguing, well-researched, and well-told tale of ancient Rome.” (Kirkus Reviews)
"Nicholas Nicastro has a gift; the ability to look past the deeds of the great and powerful to find the beating heart of Antiquity. Rome might be the legacy of Caesar and Augustus, but it was built by men like Lucius Nonius Donatus -- working men whose passions and perils, loves and losses, have remained unchanged for over 2000 years. And this is Nicastro at his absolute finest: breathing life and humanity into the lifeless marble and concrete of ancient Rome. Fans of Robert Harris and Colleen McCullough, take note!" (Scott Oden, author of Men of Bronze and Memnon)
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- Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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In this Edgar Award-nominated mystery, John Maddox Roberts takes listeners back to a Rome filled with violence and evil. Vicious gangs ruled the streets of Crassus and Pompey, routinely preying on plebeian and patrician alike. So the garroting of a lowly ex-slave and the disembowelment of a foreign merchant in the dangerous Subura district seemed of little consequence to the Roman hierarchy.
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Great start to a series
- By P. Johnson on 09-21-17
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The Wild Child
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- Length: 13 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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More pagan than lady, Meriel spends her days running barefoot through her English estate, cultivating her flowers and her mystical connection to nature. She is mute and, according to most people, mad. But handsome Dominic Renbourne, who has been sent by his twin to court her, senses in Meriel a kindred spirit. He manages to inspire her trust, and against his better judgement, her passion.
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Where is China Bride, the 2nd book?
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By: Mary Jo Putney
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The Magic Mountain
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- Unabridged
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Hans Castorp is, on the face of it, an ordinary man in his early 20s, on course to start a career in ship engineering in his home town of Hamburg, when he decides to travel to the Berghof Santatorium in Davos. The year is 1912 and an oblivious world is on the brink of war. Castorp’s friend Joachim Ziemssen is taking the cure and a three-week visit seems a perfect break before work begins. But when Castorp arrives he is surprised to find an established community of patients, and little by little, he gets drawn into the closeted life and the individual personalities of the residents.
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A Magical Journey
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By: Thomas Mann
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The Bard's Blade
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- Unabridged
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Mariyah enjoys a simple life in Vylari, a land magically sealed off from the outside world, where fear and hatred are all but unknown. There, she's a renowned wine maker, and her betrothed, Lem, is a musician of rare talent. Their destiny has never been in question. Whatever life brings, they will face it together. Then, a stranger crosses the wards into Vylari for the first time in centuries, bringing a dark prophecy that forces Lem and Mariyah down separate paths. How far will they have to go to stop a rising darkness and save their home?
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Something new
- By Blaise Ancona on 02-20-20
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The Chocolate Maker's Wife
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- Length: 20 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Born into poverty, brutalised and ignored by her family, it is only when she is married off to a nobleman that her life undergoes a transformation, as her husband recognises in Rosamund a magic she does not know she possesses but which affects almost all who encounter her. Presiding over a luxurious chocolate house where men go to be seen, exchange news and indulge in the sweet and heady drink to which they have become addicted, Rosamund feels blessed. But disaster strikes, and Rosamund stands on the brink of losing all she has worked so hard to achieve.
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Loved the history....
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Anthem
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- Length: 2 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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“It is a sin to write this. It is a sin to think words no others think and to put them down upon a paper no others are to see. It is base and evil.” Deep issues of conscience are explored in Ayn Rand’s dystopian tale of a man who dares to fight against a system that invades his very mind and identity.
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Triumphant! A beautiful molding of the mind.
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By: Ayn Rand
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The Ruby in Her Navel
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Thurstan, a young Norman and would-be Knight at the Court of King Roger in Palermo, has been in love since boyhood with Lady Alicia, now returned a widow from the Holy Land. Thurstan soon finds himself caught in a tangle of plots.
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A Well-Earned Five Stars for this Gem
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Highland Gladiator
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- Unabridged
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Truth. Justice. Revenge. Behind these stands The Scotsman's Sword. When Lor Careston's quiet Highland village was attacked and burned, he felt helpless against the raiders who destroyed his home. Seeking revenge, but lacking the fighting skills he needs to execute his mission, he sets out to find the Ludus Caledonia - a mysterious fight guild that turns men into warriors. Lor trains hard, proves himself in the ring, and earns a place with the very clan that decimated his home, having decided to set his plan for revenge in motion from inside the clan.
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Wonderful!
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The Book of Longings
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- Unabridged
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In her mesmerizing fourth work of fiction, Sue Monk Kidd takes an audacious approach to history and brings her acclaimed narrative gifts to imagine the story of a young woman named Ana. Raised in a wealthy family with ties to the ruler of Galilee, she is rebellious and ambitious, with a brilliant mind and a daring spirit. She engages in furtive scholarly pursuits and writes narratives about neglected and silenced women. Ana is expected to marry an older widower, a prospect that horrifies her. An encounter with 18-year-old Jesus changes everything.
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Made me cringe
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By: Sue Monk Kidd
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The Belly of Paris
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- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
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- Unabridged
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Although it is little known in this country, The Belly of Paris is considered one of Émile Zola’s best novels. Set in the newly built food markets of Paris, it is a story of wealth and poverty set against a sumptuous banquet of food and commerce. Having just escaped from prison after being wrongfully accused, young Florent arrives at Paris’ food market, Les Halles, half starved, surrounded by all he can’t have, and indignant at his world, which he now knows to be unjust. He finds that the city’s working classes have been displaced to make way for bigger streets and bourgeois living quarters, so he settles in with his brother’s family.
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Not keen on Davidson’s voice
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By: Émile Zola, and others
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Dreamers
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In the land of Pharaoh, Tuya has always been a slave. As a little girl, she was sold as a playmate to a wealthy child who became her best friend. But as she approaches womanhood, beautiful Tuya is betrayed and cast out. Now she belongs to Potiphar, captain of Pharaoh's guard. Yet her heart is owned by handsome Joseph, sold into slavery by his own brothers. Proud, arrogant Joseph dreams of freedom, of his own household, of Tuya as his queen.
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I was so immersed in the story I couldn’t sleep until done.
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By: Angela Hunt
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Echo in Onyx
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- Unabridged
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Brianna loves her new job as maid to Lady Marguerite. Like many high nobles, Marguerite is attended by echoes, silent creatures who look exactly like her and move in perfect synchronicity. News soon comes that Marguerite has been invited to the royal city as a potential bride for the crown prince. Brianna is delighted to accompany Marguerite to the city - and perhaps get a chance to continue her own flirtation with Nico, one of the king’s inquisitors. Then, disaster strikes on the road when they come under attack.
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Skipped ahead
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By: Sharon Shinn
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The Orphan of Cemetery Hill
- By: Hester Fox
- Narrated by: Lauren Ezzo
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Tabby has a peculiar gift: She can communicate with the recently departed. It makes her special, but it also makes her dangerous. As an orphaned child, she fled with her sister, Alice, from their charlatan aunt Bellefonte, who wanted only to exploit Tabby's gift so she could profit from the recent craze for seances. Now a young woman and tragically separated from Alice, Tabby works with her adopted father, Eli, the kind caretaker of a large Boston cemetery.
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It was a good story
- By LYSO129 on 12-13-23
By: Hester Fox
What listeners say about The River Through Rome
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous User
- 11-19-21
"The pavement of Rome was like living skin."
"The pavement of Rome was like living skin". Found myself transported into and surprisingly engaged with an ancient Roman waterworks project and its players! Nonius the engineer, is tasked with placing a sculptural waterworks project through a cluttered seamy part of town. But the digging, pipes and precious water introduce an ecosystem of well-developed, fun Roman characters. "Opening up a street in Rome was like tearing open a scab."
Initially, the tension revolves around the mysterious watery engineering job that's extremely well-paid. Grippers and Senators suddenly appear onto the landscape. Then an enigmatic and magnetic young girl named Amaris - is she slave? free? - enters the stage, like a lever that upends the blocks of established power structures and rigid roles.
Nicastro confidently sets the historical and, if needed, philosophical setting for each scene with a light quick hand. He follows with well-researched external details that give smell of almonds on the food and feel of stone and concrete. The details don't bog down into didactic heaviness. His characters thoughts, feeling, and choices flow through the elaborate pipelines of Roman social stratification - slaves, servants, shopkeepers, Senators, Grippers. Nicolas keeps the story flowing.
I'm a student of history and rarely a consumer of historical fiction. Mostly I enjoy science fiction and magical realism. I was a little shocked at the detail of a few scenes of steamy intimacy and violence, but that's a personal reaction. The narrator is solid, with a pleasing tone. I enjoyed listening to it at a faster pace (1.2-1.4x), which is the case for almost all of my audiobooks. Would I ever relisten to it? Absolutely
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- David B. Hollander
- 11-09-21
Love and engineering in Rome’s underbelly
I’ve been hoping Nicastro would write a novel set in ancient Rome since I first read Empire of Ashes. The River Through Rome is every bit as lively and inventive as his Greek novels but goes in a very different direction. Instead of focusing on major historical figures and great events, this novel considers the lives of the distinctly non-elite Amaris and the talented but struggling engineer who falls for her. As usual, Nicastro has done his research. His depiction of Rome in the 30s BC, as the Romans transitioned from Republic to Imperial rule, rings true. There’s crime, dirt, and despair, of course, but also lighter moments as we get to know some of the inhabitants of an ordinary neighborhood. Potential readers should be aware that Nicastro does not shy away from the cruel realities of Roman slavery. What most impressed me, however, was how he imagines the inner life of a woman trapped in a profoundly patriarchal world. While there are some street battles, fundamentally this is a novel about relationships. Last but not least Melanie Crawley provides excellent narration
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- DabOfDarkness
- 12-31-21
Started off good but then got predictable
The first half of this story was pretty good. There’s lots of great details that put me right in the middle of ancient Rome. From what they ate, to the lay out of the city, tangling up in the politics, and giving us a glimpse behind the bedroom curtains. I also liked the character development too. Nonius has a soft heart and yet he’s tapped to head water project. It’s a challenge for him to hold onto the position.
The second half of the story wasn’t nearly as engaging. The plot gets hijacked by a predictable romance. Also, the story becomes overly dependent on sex to keep the pages turning. I don’t mind sex in my books but I do like such scenes to add to the plot, character development, or depth of setting. Much of those scenes in this book didn’t do that and they were so numerous I actually got bored with them.
The ladies are sex objects/love interests for the most part, though Nonius does have an overbearing mother. Amaris has the most page time and most of it is in bed. First, she’s the slave and lover of a powerful senator but in a fit of anger and sadness she flees to Nonius. This creates a lot of strife and leads to one of the few action scenes. Without giving away spoilers, there’s a point where Amaris seriously considers what she would do with her life if it was her own and she comes up with sex worker. Sigh… This book is already very limited on showing what Roman women could and did do during those times, so falling back on prostitution seemed trite.
In short, great set up, boring conclusion. 3/5 stars.
The Narration: Melanie Crawley was not the best choice for this book. First, nearly all the time is spent in the head of one man or another, so the choice of female narrator didn’t really match up with the main characters of the book. Second, Crawley’s male voices all need more masculinity and some of her attempted male voices were rather cartoony. That said, she did have a variety of voices so it was easy to keep all characters separate. There were times Crawley fell into a bit of a monotone. In fact, my husband walked in while I was listening and wanted to know why a bored schoolmarm was reading a sex scene. The pacing was good and there were no tech issues with the recording. 3/5 stars.
I received a free copy of this book. My opinions are 100% my own.
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