2018/81: Vesuvius by Night -- Lindsay Davis

Save the rich and sod the poor. What changes? [loc. 838]

A novella covering the night of August 24th, AD 79, and the cataclysmic eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Nonius, a petty thief, shares a room with a painter named Larius. Larius is, on the whole, a good man: Nonius, who would like to steal Larius' earnings (but can't find them because the money is spirited away by Larius' young daughter) is not.

So the two of them are going about their daily business (mixing paints; murdering a lover's husband) when the eruption begins. Both try to flee. One escapes the catastrophe: one does not.

Davis' authorial voice is strong here. When Larius wishes he could capture the scene in paint, Davis adds 'Generations of painters would strike awe in viewers with their Vesuvius by Night'. Damningly, she highlights the lack of any evacuation effort. And some of the victims, whose remains are still being excavated, are depicted here, compassionately and as individuals: "'When can we go home?' pleaded a sad, scared child. 'Not yet,' said Ollia. She did not know that they might as well have done." [loc 792]

I'm not sure it works either as fiction (too much commentary) or as dramatised non-fiction, but reading it so soon after Black Opera -- which also features an eruption of Vesuvius, but doesn't focus on the victims -- was poignant as well as pertinent.

Note: a quick google indicates that Larius is in fact a nephew of the better-known Marcus Didius Falco.