After completing Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth I moved right along to this huge, hardcover copy of Follet’s book, Fall of Giants (September 2010) that I had picked up at Costco this past fall. It was daunting to carry this nearly 1,000-page book with me to Florida for vacation in December! (My Dad even asked if the book had an “ON” switch and was safe to read outside). Little did I know that I would fall in love once more with a collection of the stories of five families during World War I in Russia, England, France, Germany, Wales, and America.
I will be the first to admit that prior to this book I knew very little about World War I, and I have learned more from this book than any textbook in my high school history class!
The story begins with the story of Billy Williams, a young boy growing up in a mining community under the authority of Earl Fitzherbert. We learn of the Fitzherbert’s through Billy’s older sister Ethel as she works for the Earl at Ty Gywn (the largest private estate in Wales with 200 bedrooms) despite the protest of her father (a character who gets limited attention but represents the mining union workers and has a major role and influence in his family). Ethel and the Earl (who is married to a Russian princess named Bea) fall hard for one another and the result is a pregnant Ethel being disowned from her family and her being shipped by the Earl to London to raise their child alone. While feeling for Ethel, we learn of a feminist movement brewing in London as men are being drafted and put into military ranks for the oncoming war. We learn of Fitz’s sister, Maud, who is working with his Aunt Herm to bring equal rights and voting privileges into power for women across England.
Readers are also introduced to the Peshkov brothers, Lev and Grigori. Having grown up in a lower class society in Russia, the brothers have grown accustomed to living meal to meal as Grigori worked to provide for his younger brother. Both of their parents are killed early in their childhood as the result of clashes with authoritative figures from the controlling Russian government. Grigori works hard to save some money for a ticket to America and his hopes of leaving Russia are dashed with Lev gets into legal trouble and must take Grigori’s passport and ship ticket out of Russia, leaving Grigori behind with Lev’s pregnant girlfriend Katerina. Keep in mind that Russia as well is now heading to war and will soon face its own revolutionary war later in the book!
Then there is Gus Dewar, an American born son of a Senator, working for President Woodrow Wilson in the White House in Washington D.C.. Dewar is a character who gives the reader insight about the President’s actions, his participation in the war, rallies at home and the peace treaty Wilson creates with 14 points of pride to help end World War I after over four years of fighting. We hear from Dewar about the League of Nations that forms while he is in the trenches fighting with the allies for an end to the war.
The last story is that of Walter von Ulrich, the son of a powerful German diplomat. Romance and love grows between Walter and Lady Maud prior to the War when the Germans and the English could travel between the countries easily. Fearing separation from one another as the two countries would go to War, Walter and Maud are married secretly and spend only one night together before Walter goes off to battle for Germany and Lady Maud is left to wonder in England about the safety of her beloved.
There is so much more I could tell about this story, but then you would not need to read it. Amazon readers only give this book 3 out of 5 stars. I loved the story, I loved the romance, I loved the mental images Follett creates of the men at war. The only fault I could find to this story is its length. There were times when the book seemed “long” yet I found it hard to put down. In a time when life has been busy, there was always time for some Fall of Giants at night. This book gets a solid five out of five stars from me!
The second in this trilogy will be published in 2012 as it chronicles the stories from the kids of the characters in Fall of Giants through the Depression and World War II. Below is a link to author Ken Follett’s web page.
This second link provides useful background information about World War I. This helped me to connect to the book and to better understand the historical information Follett explains with precision and detail.
