What Fiction are you reading this week, April 5, 2026?

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3. I just finished Precipice by Robert Harris.

I took a couple of weeks to read this because it made me feel uncomfortable. I felt like a voyeur.

The novel takes place between July 1914 and May 1915, and focuses on the relationship between 64 year old UK Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, and Venetia Stanley, 27, largely through letters he wrote her.

The letters are real — more than 500 of them — and still exist. He destroyed her letters on his last day as Prime Minister, and Harris basically tries to recreate them.

The novel is silent as to whether there was a sexual relationship, but it is clear that Asquith was besotted, and even more shockingly, was sharing top secret war information with her, even mailing her telegrams which were intended to be seen only by Asquith and five other Cabinet members.

It’s an interesting look at the machinations of His Majesty’s government in the early days of WWI, and the personalities — including Churchill — who occupied the positions of power.