After the brutal murder of his great-uncle, Julius Caesar, Octavian, a shy and scholarly youth of nineteen, suddenly finds himself heir to the vast power of Rome. He is destined, despite vicious power struggles, bloody wars and family strife, to transform his realm and become the greatest ruler the western world had ever seen. BY THE AUTHOR OF STONER, THE SURPRISE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER:

Colum McCann once called Stoner one of the great forgotten novels of the past century, but it seems it is forgotten no longer - in 2013 translations of Stoner began appearing on bestseller lists across Europe. Forty-eight years after its first, quiet publication in the US, Stoner is finally finding the wide and devoted readership it deserves. Have you read it yet?

'A beautiful, sad, utterly convincing account of an entire life? I'm amazed a novel this good escaped general attention for so long' Ian McEwan

'A terrific novel of echoing sadness' Julian Barnes

'Stoner is a brilliant, beautiful, inexorably sad, wise, and elegant novel' Nick Hornby, The Believer

'I have read few novels as deep and as clear as John Williams' Stoner. It deserves to be called a quiet classic of American literature' Chad Harbach, author of The Art of Fielding

'So beautifully paced and cadenced that it deserves the status of classic' Colum McCann, Guardian

'A beautiful and moving novel, as sweeping, intimate and mysterious as life itself' Geoff Dyer