
Winter of the World
2012 | Historical Fiction | 928 pages
Winter of the World is the second novel in Ken Follett’s uniquely ambitious and deeply satisfying Century trilogy. On its own or read in sequence with Fall of Giants and Edge of Eternity, this is a magnificent, spellbinding epic of global conflict and personal drama.
A Battle of Ideals
An Evil Uprising
A Global Conflict on a Scale Never Seen Before
1933
Carla knew her parents were about to have a row. The second she walked into the kitchen she felt the hostility, like the bone deep cold of the wind that blew through the streets of Berlin before a February snowstorm. She almost turned and walked back out again.
It was unusual for them to fight. Mostly they were affectionate – too much so. Carla cringed when they kissed in front of other people. Her friends thought it was strange: their parents did not do that. She had said that to her mother, once. Mother had laughed in a pleased way and said: ‘The day after our wedding, your father and I were separated by the Great War.’ She had been born English, though you could hardly tell. ‘I stayed in London while he came home to Germany and joined the army.’ Carla had heard this story many times, but Mother never tired of telling it. ‘We thought the war would last three months, but I didn’t see him again for five years. All that time I longed to touch him. Now I never tire of it.’
“A consistently compelling portrait of a world in crisis.” – The Washington Post
“Gripping . . . powerful.” – New York Times
“This book is truly epic . . . The reader will probably wish there was a thousand more pages.” – The Huffington Post