They had but one thing in common…
William Lowell Kane and Abel Rosnovski, Kane the son of a
billionaire, Abel a penniless Polish immigrant – two men both born on the same
day on opposite sides of the world, their paths were destined to cross in an inevitable
struggle to build an empire better than the other. An epic tale, spanning six
decades, of two men linked by an all-consuming hatred, brought together by fate
to save… and finally destroy… each other.
Not only does this book have many pages (500+) but there is
so much storyline put onto every page that you feel you are reading several
books, not just one. At no point does the storyline let up; it never
drags or loses the pace for a moment. I would say a lot of the story is
descriptive rather than dialogue, but this suits the style of the book as you
are taken through various decades and different parts of the world. The
book follows the two main characters from birth through their lives, dedicating
alternative chapters to each character. Some chapters are quite long, so
you forget what has been happening with the other character when you return to
him, but other chapters are so compelling that you doesn’t want to leave that
character’s story line for one chapter.
What I liked about this book: I
really enjoyed this book from start to end but I think my favorite part is
Abel’s early life. He was born in a Poland controlled by Russia and then
during the First World War he was held captive, suffering at the hands of the
German army, then the Russian army after the war. It is by far the most
interesting part of this compelling story, even though in parts it is the most
harrowing. It gave me an insight into life in an occupied country, it was
not something I had really come across in such depth before when reading on the
subject of Europe during the First World War. I also liked how you really
felt time passing through the book. As the book spans 6 decades there is
a risk that you will not be able to comprehend this through the characters and
the events in the book, but I did feel that is was clearly evident that both
the main characters changed as they aged and the events they lived through
changed them.
This books main success is that even though the two
characters come from completely different backgrounds, they are essentially the
same at heart and at no point in the book do you feel either of the characters
have become a better person than the other. There are times when Kane and
Abel each act in an underhand or despicable way, but they also redeem
themselves continuously so that you never feel that either one is to blame for
the feud between them, more that it was all just a matter of
circumstance. I have never read a Jeffrey Archer novel before and perhaps
never would have as I always viewed his novels as being more of a man’s book
rather than an all-round novel. The story was so compelling I struggled
to put it down and it touched on subjects I have not read before in a book. A
good read.
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