The Confessions of Young Nero by Margaret George

The Confessions of Young Nero is the first installment of a two book series that follows the life of Nero, as he rises, at a young age, to become one of the better known emperors in Roman history. The story is fiction but the facts behind the story are very real. The author takes us into the world of Roman royalty in which greed, deception and murder are a part of everyday life.

We enter the story when Nero is a young child of four. He is not yet Nero, but Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus whose father is dead and mother has been exiled. At this early age he is introduced to the savagery that is part of his heritage when his uncle, the emperor, tries to kill him. Upon his Uncle’s demise, Nero’s mother, Agrippina, is able to return to Rome and reunite with her son. She sees young Nero as a way to achieve her ultimate goal of ruling the Roman Empire. All she needs is the right pawn.

When Claudius, Nero’s great uncle, becomes Emperor, Agrippina quickly becomes his wife. Once that is done she arranges for Nero to marry Claudius’s daughter and have Claudius adopt Nero as his son. Now the stage is set for Nero to become the next emperor upon Claudius’s death. All that is left is to arrange that death. Amid this atmosphere young Nero must learn how to circumvent a premature death at the hands of his enemies. His decisions, necessary for his very survival, will shape him into the fabled ruler that history will not forget.

This book is a testament to Margaret George’s story telling. The story has all the elements, murder and intrigue just to name a few, to keep a reader enthralled. In addition to the thoroughly researched facts, she has managed to capture the essence of a young man as he stumbles to find himself among the pressures of political and royal intrigue. In short, she made me like Nero despite all of his shortcomings.

If you are, like me, a lover of historical fiction you need to not only read this book – but own it. I also see people who love a good story, regardless of genre, liking this book. Disclosure: I received an ARC from the publisher in a giveaway.