Fran W. (readingram) reviewed on 12/8/2010

Follett describes characters on differing sides of the conflict in WW1 realistically. As in any conflict, there are different sides. Some want war; others do not. Some are elites; others are poor. Some are noble; others are not. The protagonists show a snapshot of the fall of the class system throughout Europe. Welsh miners, English landed gentry, Prussian and Russian aristocracy, Russian peasants and workers and American diplomats all fall on different sides of the conflict they are powerless to stop. The story told through the protagonists and intriguingly complex plot and subplot aptly demonstrates how the the balance of power and the lives of individuals are dramatically changed as the world enters a new era.
The story begins in a Welsh mining town of Aberowen. The miners and their families are impoverished and overworked by a mining company. The company pays the proceeds to an English nobleman, Earl Fitzherbert. Fitzherberts assumptions as to the deference the lower classes ought to pay him are overturned by the end of the story. He plays the sexual field with the housekeeper of his estate. Not surprisingly his lover, Ethel, ends up pregnant. At the end of the story, Fitz and his legitimate son run into Eth and the son he wont acknowledge on a staircase. Symbolically Fitz and son are descending. Eth and son are ascending in such a way that the earl and his heir must show deference to his former housekeeper by standing aside to let her pass.

Folletts narration is wonderful especially in his use of dialogue. I can hear the Welsh lilt, the Cockney accent, the aristocratic British accent and the German and Russian accents as the characters interact. The only drawback is that upon occasion Follett doesnt quite tell us how some of the Welsh place names might be pronounced. However, the stories of his characters are so powerful, all is forgiven.

The characters and their interaction ring true because they are driven by their passions. The passions run the gamut of patriotism and justice to greed,envy and lust. Not all characters are likable; however, because the protagonists have a desire for a better future, it is compelling to care what happens to them even if their ideas of what will make a better future widely differ.

In short this is a wonderful first book to the Century Triology that portrays human near- and far-sightedness as humanity was caught up in the worlds most horrific war before WW2. Shifting borders, a dream of a League of Nations and Germanys hyperinflation end this wonderful historic novel on the brink of what is yet to come.

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