At core are the five families he left at the end of WW2 and the inception of the Cold War. The time is now 1961. The armed truce that is the Cold War has begun to fray, but is still maintained by the leaders of Russia and America.
Follett does not hesitate to take us into the White House at the time of the Cuban missile crisis, or to put words to JFK and his brother Bobby or the Russian leaders of the time in Moscow.
In East Germany, people escape to the West, risking death every time.
In America, the Civil Rights movement under the Rev Martin Luther King is becoming more organised, and we follow a busload of black American youth on a road trip to Alabama, a hotbed of racial hatred and violence.
The struggle for political power and influence continues in East and West. The underlying theme is that of ageing hardline politicians of dubious morals frantically holding on to power and resisting change, and the struggle for those with new, more liberal, thoughtful aspirations to gain traction.
At the same time Follett never lets us lose sight of the many ordinary and some not-so-ordinary people, their hopes and dreams. Their stories form a continuing thread and fascinating background to the many aspects, plots and counterplots of the world. It is a big book, but I could not put it down.
- Margaret Bannister is a retired Dunedin psychotherapist and science teacher.
WIN A COPY
The ODT has four copies of Edge of Eternity by Ken Follett to give away courtesy of publisher Macmillan. For your chance to win, email helen.speirs@odt.co.nz with your name and postal address in the body of the email and ''Edge of Eternity book competition'' in the subject line by 5pm on Tuesday, January 27.
LAST WEEK'S WINNERS
Winners of Working Stiff, by Dr Judy Melinek and T.J. Mitchell, courtesy of Allen & Unwin, were: Sue Swan, Garth Johnstone, Sara Keen and Donna Harris, all of Dunedin, and Trevor Norton, of Hampden.
