Winter of the World (Century Trilogy #2) by Ken Follett

My rating:

In this second part of his historical epic, dedicated to his grandparents, Welsh author Ken Follett, picks up a few years after the first volume closes off.

We reunite with the 5 families from the first part of the trilogy (Russian, English, Welsh, German, and American), including their offspring. The story portrays the war from their different perspectives (country, class, generation), depicting the political situation that inevitably led to the Second World War, and ultimately to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the beginning of the Cold War.

As Adolf Hitler rises to power, the brownshirts, and the SS, repress and silence opposition using horrific violence, targeting rival parties and the minorities, among which the Jews, the handicapped, and the gay community. There are some unpleasant scenes in the book; however, they seem always to serve the narrative.

We travel across Europe, from Germany to Spain and Russia, to the United States via Great Britain, and from the US to Japan. We cross the paths of spies, traitors, the Gestapo, and the French Resistance, as well as the many brilliant men and women who put their lives at risk to defeat fascism.

Sometimes the characters recover incredibly fast from harrowing events and come across a little incomplete. Having said that, it is surprising how much detail does gets conveyed in less than a thousand pages spanning 15 years of history!

I’ll just finish off by saying this book beats any history class I ever got on the subject, and I particularly enjoyed the way the different events are welded together, giving the big picture of events, as well as letting us in on the lives of cleverly devised characters.

Can’t wait to read the third volume!

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