Awake

Set in ancient Italy, the story revolves around Pliny the Elder, a driven and eccentric naturalist who tirelessly dictates his monumental work, Natural History, to his slave Diocles. Despite his physical ailments and chaotic public readings, Pliny’s ambition to classify the natural world is matched only by his appreciation for simple pleasures, like the common rose. Following his tragic death during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, his nephew Pliny the Younger inherits his legacy, but struggles to find the same wonder in the world that his uncle did.