THE BURIED CITY

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER FROM THE DIRECTOR GENERAL OF POMPEII The best book on Pompeii I ve ever read STEPHEN FRY An essential read for anyone interested in this extraordinary place TELEGRAPH Brilliant TOM HOLLAND A vast area of Pompeii is being excavated for the first time revealing astonishing insights into how people really lived In this revelatory new history Director of Pompeii Gabriel Zuchtriegel shares the untold stories that are at last emerging Pompeii is a world frozen in time There are unmade beds dishes left drying tools abandoned by workmen bodies embracing with love and fear And alongside the remnants of everyday life there are captivating works of art lifelike portraits exquisite frescos and mosaics and the extraordinary sculpture of a sleeping boy curled up under a blanket that s too small The Buried City reconstructs the catastrophe that destroyed Pompeii on 24 August 79 CE but it also offers a behind the scenes tour of the city as it was before who lived here what mattered to them and what happened in their final hours It offers us a vivid sense of Pompeii s continuing relevance and proves that ancient history is much closer to us than we think A fascinating new book about what we are still learning