Fall of Giants (Century Trilogy, 1)

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Maud is fined one guinea for disturbing the peace, and she and Ethel plan the next campaign in their fight for women’s rights. Billy is surprised (and infuriated) to find that Fitz is the new commander of the Aberowen division. In London, Maud is awakened by the sounds of artillery in distant France as the Battle of the Somme begins. Throughout May and June 1917, Lev runs a nightclub in Buffalo while cheating on his wife with Marga. Josef catches him and gives Lev a new job at the foundry to keep him away from women. However, the workers go on strike over low wages and Gus is sent to stop it. When Lev fails to end it himself, Gus meets with the Union Leader, Lev, and Josef. He demands a 50 cent increase in wages or they will lose the factory to the army. Josef agrees to the deal. Later, Lev is caught again with Marga and Josef forces him to join the army. Gus later announces that he, too, has volunteered. After dinner, the talk is of the possibility of war between Germany and Britain. Gus Dewar brings up many reasons for conflict between the two nations. Walter von Ulrich points out that Britain and Germany are the only major European countries not seeking territorial expansion. In January and February 1017, the allies reject peace as the kaiser promotes a new, aggressive foreign minister, Zimmermann. Walter is worried about America and Otto tells him he can work in Berlin if he marries his friend, Monika. After attending a meeting, Walter is asked about America by General von Henscher, and they come up with a plan to use Mexico and Japan to keep American troops in America while Admiral Von Holtzendoorff executes his five-month plan to wipe out the allies. Meanwhile, Fitz is happy the peace proposal was dismissed as he is haunted by the deaths of many men. He finds a partially decoded German message to Mexico and, after intercepting the full message, takes it to Gus. Gus is dismayed, but delivered the message to Rosa and asks her to release it without saying she got it from the White House. Meanwhile, Ethel marries Bernie.

I keep recommending this book to friends. It's one of those books that both educates and entertains - a real winner as I feel I'm improving myself rather than simply indulging in escapism. If the sheer size of the traditional paper version puts you off, then this is definitely one to do audio-style. The narration is spot on. Three years later, the main story begins. Edward "Fitz" Fitzherbert, Earl Fitzherbert, who maintains a country estate in Aberowen and licenses the land on which the coal mine is built, hosts a party for many powerful people around the world. His guests include: In June 1915, the passenger ship Lusitania is torpedoed and sunk, killing many innocent people, including Americans. Although the public and the President are committed to neutrality, the United States moves closer to war. Gus Dewar, in his hometown of Buffalo for the summer, runs into Olga, a member of the Vyalov family. He becomes interested in her and wants to become better acquainted with her. Ethel receives a coded letter from Billy telling her that he is in Russia with Fitz. Ethel and Bernie argue about the Bolsheviks, Ethel fearing that Lenin could become as big a tyrant as the tsar. Bernie is the leading Labour candidate from Aldgate, but Ethel has been nominated by the women. She is considering it, which angers Bernie. As Maud worries about Walter’s fate, Lord Remarc tells her that the Germans have agreed to an armistice.

Author Q&A

There are many novels based on the impact of the First World War on peoples’ lives but none better than this book. The factual content is an excellent analysis of how countries slipped into what turned out to be a disaster and a salutary reminder of how hubris and stupidity can change the course of history. Where this book scores over a straight historical account of the period is that the author creates such engaging characters who are deftly inserted into this tumultuous period of world history whose fates become personally important and whose imaginary lives illustrate forcefully the impact of the war on all strata of society, on women and countries across the world. The book isn’t jingoistic in that there are sympathetic characters as well rogues and autocrats from both sides of the conflict though there is more sympathy for the ordinary people than for those with influence over events. Bea tells Fitz that she wants to help out the Russian strikebreakers, who are being ostracized in the village. Fitz agrees since this will show that they are not taking sides, as they are already feeding the miners’ children.

Gus Dewar does not make a smooth adjustment to the life of the army but needs to do well to disprove people’s doubts about him. I certainly hope so. I have never before committed to such an ambitious and wide–ranging project. It is probably the publication event of my life. In continuation of the above question, if you had to identify one of the main characters' stories as one that would make a good "stand-alone" novel, which would it be? Why do you think his/her story would make an enjoyable book on its own? Billy meets his friend Tommy Griffiths and the two boys go off to the mines. Billy’s father, who is known as a socialist, and Tommy’s father, who is an atheist, are not popular with the mine managers. The boys are warned not to be troublemakers. Billy realizes that he is protected from harm by his father’s position as a union agent. Follett depicts life in the early twentieth century through a series of detailed and imagery-rich scenes: the pitch-darkness of a Welsh coal mine, the opulence of an English country manor, the austerity of pre-industrial Russia, the horrors of a French battlefield. Which scenes stood out for you? Why did they make such an impression?

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On the troop ship carrying Gus and other American troops overseas, Spanish flu breaks out and claims several men. Germany’s army is advancing with the front now at Rheims, north of Paris. The British army is pinned down in Flanders. This audiobook is worth every cent and every second. I would very happily recommend this book to family and friends.A masterful piece. Fitz is leading the troops from Aberowen, preparing for a massive push along the Somme. The French army was severely depleted at the Battle of Verdun and so they have few soldiers to spare, leaving the British army almost on its own.

Do you think it will surprise readers to realize how little freedom and equality women in Europe and America had in the early twentieth century? That an unmarried upper-class Englishwoman was not allowed to be alone with a man, for example, or that she had to ask her father's or brother's permission to get married—or that he expected to read all her mail? And all this is very human as he interlaces stories of the personal lives of interesting characters. Many real historical figures appear in your novel, including President Woodrow Wilson and Winston Churchill. How closely did you follow the historical record in portraying them? In February 1915, Ethel works her seamstress job in the working district with her new friend, Mildred, who lives in the house with her. She then goes to a Labour Party meeting led by Bernie where Maud gives a speech about women who must support their families and how they cannot let the war stop progress. Ethel writes a coded letter to Billy about how she wishes she was dead. Meanwhile, Lev is caught cheating at a card game in Aberowen and is forced to flee, with Billy helping him on the train. Later, Billy finds Ethel giving birth and helps her through the process. Ken Follett’s magnificent historical epic beginsas five interrelated families move through the momentous dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for women’s suffrage.

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Is there a custom or practice from the book's early twentieth-century time period that you wish existed in our modern day? What would it be, and why do you think it should have a place in today's world? A thirteen-year-old Welsh boy enters a man’s world in the mining pits. . . . An American law student rejected in love finds a surprising new career in Woodrow Wilson’s White House. . . . A housekeeper for the aristocratic Fitzherberts takes a fateful step above her station, while Lady Maud Fitzherbert herself crosses deep into forbidden territory when she falls in love with a German spy. . . . And two orphaned Russian brothers embark on radically different paths when their plan to emigrate to America falls afoul of war, conscription, and revolution. After the rejection of peace talks, Walter fears the entry of the United States into the war, which the new policy of unrestricted warfare is sure to guarantee. The Foreign Minister proposes offering U.S. land to Mexico to keep America distracted. The war is going badly for the Allies, and French soldiers are becoming mutinous. Russia is an unknown quantity as the government remains unsettled since the revolution. Bea receives news that her brother Andrei has been wounded, his arm amputated. Walter has been reassigned to the battlefield as the fighting has become crucial in the final days of the war. On the fog-covered no-man’s-land, Walter’s company faces Billy Williams and the boys of Aberowen. When the fog lifts, the gunfire begins. The Germans split and come at the British from both sides. Billy and his men retreat.