Ken Follett has written some huge books and, at 816 pages, Never is one of those. At first glance I thought I would never be able to get through it and then before I knew it I was racing through it and trying to slow myself down because I didn’t want it to end (in more ways than one but you will have to read it to see what I mean by that).
This intriguing, thrilling, terrifying story is set in the near future and looks at what could happen when leaders of countries disagree and don’t trust each other enough to be the first to back down.
The personal relationships of the people in the three major strands of the story make absolutely riveting reading. All the characters are drawn meticulously so that I cared deeply about all of them and was anxious to find out what happened to them all through the shattering events taking place around them. Pauline is the president of the USA and her husband, Gerry, is known as the first gentleman; Abdul is an incredibly brave Lebanese/American spy working for the CIA who by chance becomes the protector of Kiah who is trying to leave Chad with her baby boy, Najiv, and start a new life in France; Chang Kai is a Chinese spymaster, Princeton educated and moderate in his hopes for the future of the world. He is married to Ting, a beautiful television star, who is adored by millions of Chinese viewers.
Trouble in North Korea is the beginning of a snowball which keeps rolling, very fast, downhill all the way. What happens when the snowball looks like becoming too big to push back is what this story is all about.
This is a brilliant book, and all a bit too realistic. That the fate of the world could hang on the decisions of a small number of people is all too frightening. I’m off now to eat, drink and be merry (well, as much as one can at my age) for tomorrow…?
Published by Macmillan.
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