Fall of Giants - Ken Follett

An epic novel - one of the greatest I've read I dare say. Fall of Giants is an eloquently crafted novel that fuses Fiction with Non-Fiction to produce an eye opening and gripping story of World War 1. The novel revolves around 3 interlinked families/character sets spread around the world.

Firstly, the Welsh nobility and the miners of the town of Aberowen. Housemaid Ethel Williams' fate is entangled with that of Earl Fitzherbert's through romance, as her brother, Billy Williams is sent to fight the war for the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the German Front and in Russia against the Bolsheviks.

The second is a family of two brothers, whose parents have been killed by the Tsar and his nobles. Grigori and Lev are split by chasing the American Dream and Conscription, as Lev goes to America whilst his brother helps lead the Bolshevik revolution under Lenin.

The third is that of Walter Von Ulrich, son of a german count working for the Kaiser's embassy in London. He loves Fitzherbert's sister, Maud, but faces difficult choices due to the war and the British hatred for the Germans.

The book is just so packed (900 pages) with stories that I couldn't dream of summing them up on this blog, but I just have to say what a brilliant book it is. Its a fiction book that opens your eyes to the human psyche, looking at how the war was started by disgruntled aristocrats but fought by the innocent man, the racism for ones neighbor that ensues and the rich history that is built from this.

Before I read this book, I was taught history from the British perspective. Learning about their victories and losses, and thus sympathized with them. When I read in the book that the British had taken a German trench in a strategic location, killing many and moving closer to Berlin, I felt secretly happy that justice had been served, but reading this book I realize one thing. That nobody is right and nobody is wrong. When we fight wars, we don't kill enemies. We kill good people with no intention to do wrong. In the book you get an unbiased view from every perspective of the war front. I was moved to tears many times when I was reading about how once good friends, having dinner together at lavish parties were shooting at one another in the thought that they were fighting for riotousness. Even after the Germans lost, I sympathized with them. There can only be one victor, and the loser is at their mercy. The treaty of Versailles proved the true evils of the hailed "heroes" of the allies, as many innocent germans lost everything.

The same goes for the Russians. When reading about the Revolution, you even sympathize with the rich aristocrats. When angry farmers kill as many of the rich as possible, you are forced to think twice. Is the fact that they were merely connected to the Tsar enough to kill them?

Another thing I learnt about is Revolution. The Russian Revolution ousted the Tsar, but gave birth to the Soviet, whom everyone thought would save russia. But from what we know about Stalin, we can see that this is plainly not true.

I couldn't stress enough how much I recommend this book to everyone. It merely isn't another story book. Its a revelation.