In The Dream of Scipio, "Pears' finest book yet" (Boston Globe), the acclaimed author of An Instance of the Fingerpost intertwines three intellectual mysteries, three intellectual mysteries, three love stories-and three of the darkest moments in human history. United by a classical text called "The Dream of Scipio," three men struggle to find refuge from the madness that surrounds them…in the final days of the Roman Empire, in the grim years of the Black Death, and in the direst hours of World War II.