This is the last book of the outstanding trilogy written by well known Author, Ken Follett.
The book cover the time from about 1961 to 1989 and takes place in USA, Russia, England, Germany, Europe, Wales and Cuba. It continues the epic with the intermingled lives of families from these countries building up a compelling and very readable story of everyday lives of people in those times.
If you have already read the previous 2 books, it does help in following the relationships between the characters .
Fiction it might be but it is based on the historical events of the day,- the end of WW2, the building of the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Crisis, and the Civil Rights Movement. Some famous people also appear in the book, notably, Jack and Bobby Kennedy and Krushev. There are also other characters loosely based on other famous people like Jane Fonda and the Beatles.
The book easily holds your attention if you like reading about history and this in particular appealed to me as I had lived through this period and I could remember some of the events but with reading the book, I began to understand some of the complexities of those times and this led to much better understanding but gained in a very enjoyable and interesting way.
A good book to read but make sure to give yourself plenty of time as it is very large with over 1000 pages.
So large in fact it took me over 5 weeks to read !!
Just finished reading that myself! Wonderful read, great insights into the U.S. Presidents and Russian rulers and pop stars etc etc, I was out of breath at the end partly because of the story and party because it was a library book and had to be returned in two weeks, and I did it!
ReplyDeleteJohn