Fall of Giants
Published on 3. June 2011
Book
Paperback/Softback
864 pages
978-0-330-46055-2 (ISBN)
Description
The first in Ken Follett's bestselling Century Trilogy, Fall of Giants is a huge novel that follows five families through the world-shaking dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for votes for women. It is 1911. The Coronation Day of King George V. The Williams, a Welsh coal-mining family, is linked by romance and enmity to the Fitzherberts, aristocratic coal-mine owners. Lady Maud Fitzherbert falls in love with Walter von Ulrich, a spy at the German Embassy in London. Their destiny is entangled with that of an ambitious young aide to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and with two orphaned Russian brothers, whose plans to emigrate to America fall foul of war, conscription and revolution. In a plot of unfolding drama and intriguing complexity, Fall of Giants moves seamlessly from Washington to St Petersburg, from the dirt and danger of a coal mine to the glittering chandeliers of a palace, from the corridors of power to the bedrooms of the mighty.
Reviews / Votes
The master storyteller Ken Follett knits together British, American, German and Russian points of view from the start to the end of the First World War into a fascinating and remarkably fertile tapestry of society and politics * The Times * He's pulled it off again with Fall of Giants: it's classic Follett with the brewing cataclysm of war given a human angle * Sunday Express * Like Follett's classic novel, The Pillars of the Earth, it quickly becomes a guilty pleasure * Daily Telegraph * Few works set out with such a grand concept as Ken Follett's new Century trilogy, but part one suggests that the series will be one of the literary masterpieces of our time . . . while grand events and themes are at the core of the novel, it is the richness of the characters and the intertwining of their often disparate stories that steal the show * Sunday Times * Perhaps no British author better illustrates the forces at work in international publishing than can give birth to, and then grow, a global brand . . . If such books deliver the simple pleasures of escape, maybe they hold up a distant mirror to their readers too. -- Boyd Tonkin * Independent * This is hi-octane storytelling all the more powerful because the story it tells is, mostly, true. Follett's command of the vast forces he unleashes is as impressive as the battle strategies of his generals, and in many cases more so . . . overall Follett is masterly in conveying so much drama and historical information so vividly -- <i>Scotsman</i> An extraordinary achievement -- A. N. Wilson * Reader's Digest * An epic saga on a grand scale. Spiked with romance and intrigue . . . This involving historical saga is the perfect read for long winter evenings * Choice * Follett has managed to write an accessible and fascinating page turner that leaves the reader wanting more, at the same time as staying true to history * Sunday Business Post *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Pan Macmillan
Target group
Interest Age: From 18 years
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 197 mm
Width: 130 mm
Thickness: 54 mm
Weight
602 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-330-46055-2 (9780330460552)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
06/2011
Macmillan
€18.49
Available for download
Person
Ken Follett was born in Cardiff, Wales. Barred from watching films and television by his parents, he developed an early interest in reading thanks to a local library. After studying philosophy at University College London, he became involved in centre-left politics, entering into journalism soon after. His first thriller, the wartime spy drama Eye of the Needle, became an international bestseller and has sold over 10 million copies. He then astonished everyone with his first historical novel, The Pillars of the Earth, the story of the building of a medieval cathedral, which went on to become one of the most beloved books of the twentieth century. One of the most popular authors in the world, his many books including the Kingsbridge series and the Century trilogy - a body of work which together chronicles over a thousand years of history - and his latest novel Never - which envisages how World War III could happen - have sold more than 188 million copies. A father and husband, Ken lives with his wife in England and enjoys travelling the world when he can.