Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris

The 1660 Act of Oblivion of the title was the edict in the wake of the fall of the English Commonwealth that pardoned all those who took up arms against the king save those who had a direct hand in Charles I’s execution. Many of these so-called regicides are already dead – Cromwell himself had died two years prior to the Restoration in 1660. But one of the most prominent names on the decree that sealed Charles’s fate was that of Colonel Edward Whalley, a cousin and childhood friend of Cromwell who has fled to America with his son-in-law, another regicide, Colonel Will Goffe. The two high tail it out of England for America and are hunted men ever after. The book follow the turbulent paths of the fugitives in the Puritan communities of New England. Both have left families behind in England and their stories too are woven into the narrative, particularly that of Frances, Goffe’s wife. The men are not young – Whalley is in his 60s, Goffe in his early 40s – and the lives of fugitives are not easy. Goffe misses his young family, which he manages to keep in touch with but not enough to put them in danger. It is a good read especially if you are fond of historical fiction.