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Do you ever wish you were someone else? Who?
Many years ago, I wished I could be an NBA basketball player like Julius Erving (Dr. J), one of my sports heroes from the distant past. But once I finished medical school and training, I knew there was nothing I wanted to be other than a doctor. And a novelist, of course!
What did you do on your last birthday?
My wife and I went to dinner on the water, and we opened one of our better Napa Cabernets, an Accendo 2016, I think.
What part of the writing process do you dread?
The endless proofreading and correction of small details after a book has been largely edited by the publisher but is then gone over repeatedly to find and eliminate those tiny, elusive errors.
Do you ever suffer from writer’s block? If so, what do you do about it?
I am not usually blocked in the actual writing process because I write my stories from a fairly detailed outline. But I do get blocked at the very beginning stages of planning a new novel, in trying to decide what to write about. Once I have a concept and a main character in mind, I can usually get going from there, though there will be episodes of blockage in creating the outline.
Tell us about your latest release.
The Twelve Tables: A Novel of Ancient Rome is set in the early Roman Republic, an era that has received little attention in historical fiction, compared to the late Republic and early Empire. The elevator pitch is this: A sixteen-year-old boy in 462 BC Rome is sold into debt servitude by his own father, then rises out of bondage to become of the city’s richest merchants and a champion of the Twelve Tables, the great code of Roman law that would become a foundational text of Western civilization—yet lies largely forgotten.
"The blood of the bulls on Jupiter’s hill gave them liberty—the words graven unto these Twelve Tables made them equal."
ROME, 462 BC. To save his family’s failing farm, sixteen-year-old Marcus Atilius is sold into debt servitude by his own father. Plunged into the city’s underbelly, Marcus must endure a world of cutthroat trading stalls and gritty warehouses, all while navigating a forbidden entanglement with a woman far above his station. Survival demands sharp guile and moral compromise.
As a bitter class struggle pushes Rome toward the brink of civil war, Marcus vows to beat the elites at their own ruthless game to win his freedom and a fortune worthy of the woman he loves.
Yet his rise brings a fateful choice. A historic demand sweeps the city for the Twelve Tables—a revolutionary legal code to protect plebeians from patrician tyranny. With a corrupt aristocrat holding the tether to his trading empire, will Marcus protect his hard-won power, or risk everything for the soul of Rome?
Enjoy an Excerpt
The fire crackled. His father’s eyes roved over their faces. “He said I was too weak for bondage. That I was the reason for the debt.”
Quintus rose in protest. Fausta began to weep, and Lucia went to her, wrapping her arms around her.
“Is it so, Marcus?” Servius whispered. “Has father slowed that much?”
Marcus feigned doubt that Mettius had, but only out of respect. The weight loss, the gray in his beard—his father had aged. Strong as a bull one year, enfeebled the next.
Mettius drew a breath and went on. “He threatened to seize our land. Make vagrants of us. Beggars.”
If they lost their land, Marcus knew, they would live in crowded squalor in Rome, desperate for work. And why? Because it had always been that way. There was one set of laws for the privileged, another for everyone else.
His father stared over their heads at the wall. “I asked for another way. He wanted Quintus.” Mettius lowered his gaze. “I did not allow it. If I were to die with Quintus in bondage, the family would have no paterfamilias. The risk was too great.” His father’s voice had gone cold.
Quintus turned around. Marcus nodded to show he agreed. Better to lose their land than a son. It would be a hardship, but the family would stay together this way.
Marcus looked at his father. Their eyes met.
“I sold Marcus into mancipium with Gaius Licinius. A term of three years. He comes tomorrow to take him to Rome.”
About the Author:
About the Author:
Richard Barager is the author of The Atheist and the Parrotfish and Altamont Augie, the latter a winner of the Silver Medal in Foreword Reviews 2011 Book of the Year Awards (Historical Fiction); a Gold Medal in the 2011 eLit Book Awards (Literary Fiction); and a Silver Medal in the Independent Publisher 2012 Regional Book Awards. The Wall Street Journal reviewed Altamont Augie in its Five Best column: “No other novel so crystallizes the themes, flavors and attitudes of an era [the 1960s].” The Atheist and the Parrotfish was featured on Book Talk Radio, with Kory French. Richard completed undergraduate studies and medical school at the University of Minnesota and was a nephrologist in private practice for many years. Long devoted to medicine and fiction, he now writes full time (and no longer at night!). He believes fiction explores meaning in ways science cannot. Sometimes only fiction can discover truth.
Buy the book at Amazon
Thank you for featuring THE TWELVE TABLES.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Judy, for the warm welcome and for featuring "The Twelve Tables" today! I'm delighted to be here. I enjoyed answering the interview questions, and I'd be happy to talk with your readers about the novel, its characters, or the fascinating history of ancient Rome in the era of the early Republic.
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