Title: Winter of the World (#2 Fall of Giants series)

Author: Ken Follet

Pages: 1022

Hi all,

I have now finished the second installment to the ‘Fall of Giants’ series by Ken Follet. As expected, it was also quite a lengthy novel, but it tells a quite comprehensive story of pre-WW2, during WW2 and early post WW2.

The first novel introduced us to a set of characters from different countries and different backgrounds and allowed us to follow how each of them experienced the war from their perspective. In the second novel, we mostly follow the stories of the children from the book one characters. Once again, we see how these characters start out their lives as children, then become young adults, live through the World War and then become adults themselves that also have their own set of children.

The book is broken down into the following chapters:

• Part 1 – The other cheek
  • Chapter 1 – 1933 (pg. 15)
  • Chapter 2 – 1935 pg. 99)
  • Chapter 3 – 1936 (pg. 172)
  • Chapter 4 – 1937 (pg. 257)
  • Chapter 5 – 1939 (pg. 305)
• Part 2 – Time for Blood
  • Chapter 6 – 1940 I (pg. 365)
  • Chapter 7 – 1940 II (pg. 416)
  • Chapter 8 – 1941 I (pg. 466)
  • Chapter 9 – 1941 II (pg. 549)
  • Chapter 10 – 1941 III (pg. 581)
  • Chapter 11 – 1941 IV (pg. 610)
  • Chapter 12 – 1942 I (pg. 635)
  • Chapter 13 – 1942 II (pg. 668)
  • Chapter 14 – 1942 III (pg. 720)
  • Chapter 15 – 1943 I (pg. 749)
  • Chapter 16 – 1943 II (pg. 778)
  • Chapter 17 – 1943 III (pg. 801)
  • Chapter 18 – 1944 (pg. 822)
  • Chapter 19 – 1945 I (pg. 869)
  • Chapter 20 – 1945 II (pg. 901)
• Part 3 – The Cold Peace
  • Chapter 21 – 1945 III (pg. 929)
  • Chapter 22 – 1946 (pg. 952)
  • Chapter 23 – 1947 (pg. 976)
  • Chapter 24 – 1948 (pg. 990)
  • Chapter 25 – 1949 (pg. 1013)

The book has the following characters that it follows throughout the novel:

We will mostly elaborate on the experiences from the following characters:

• American
  • Woody Dewar
    • The eldest son of senator Dewar. He obtains a decent qualification and has been in love with Joanne Rouzhrok since he was 15. He has accompanied his father on multiple occasions to the White House and other social events. One day in 1941, the family visit Chuck on Hawaii, where he is stationed for the marines. It is the last day of their visit and when they are about to head for the ship, they notice that some foreign planes are heading towards the island bay of Pearl Harbor. Japan has struck their attack on neutral America, which results in the death of Joanne, Woody’s fiance. Woody decides to enlist in the army as a paratrooper and soon is sent to the training base in the UK. There, he meets a new girl at a party and they hit it off quite quickly. After the war he decides not to follow in his father’s footsteps. Instead, he follows in mother”s as a journalist.
  • Chuck Dewar
    • The middle child and not academically inclined as his brother, he decides to enlist in the marines even before there is a war. He is first part of the cryptographers team that catches radio signals from Japan and then prevents any potential conflict that could have occurred. This is done by showing military presence on the pacific islands it holds. Later, he joins the cartographers team responsible to draw the coastal shores around the territories of the enemy islands. After one complaint of the inaccuracy of the maps, Chuck and his secret partner (Eddie Parry) join the front lines so they can improve the maps. On their first day of invading the island, Eddie is hit in the leg. Avoiding protocol, Chuck runs back, picks him up and heads back to the shore. However, he is hit in the back and doesn’t wake up again.
  • Daisy Peshkov
    • Daughter to Lev Peshkov and Olga, the heir to a million dollar business tycoon, she grows up in the high society of America in Buffalo. She tries to become an item with Charlie Farquarson, one of the founding families, but is ultimately shunned because her father’s shady business dealings, both in the past and present. Not to mention that her father is married to Olga, had a child with another woman (Greg Peshkov) and is also dating a movie actress. She decides to take a break and leave for London, so that she may hopefully find her future husband there instead. She attends multiple parties and ends up meeting both Lloyd Williams and Boy Fitzherbert. She likes Lloyd, but marries Boy instead because she will then become the viscountess. Soon she discovers that her husband is having an affair with two women (a mother and her daughter) which he doesn’t see as problematic. During the war, Lloyd is stationed on Ty Gwyn with other soldiers and the two see each other regularly. They develop feelings for one another. He has to leave for the war as well. During ‘The Blitz’ the Germans were bombing London mercilessly. Daisy learns to become handy and becomes a driver for the hospital so that injured people can be treated quickly. In the late stages of the war she divorces from Boy Fitzherbert and marries Lloyd Williams instead. She is his wife and assists him on his political career.
  • Greg Peshkov
    • Greg is the illegitimate son of Lev and has received a good education at Harvard in Physics. However, he has spent some years in the government for the department of foreign relations. He has always been intrigued by the power that his father held in society and therefore has developed an interest for roles that have strong power. He later ends up being assigned to the secret ‘Manhattan project’, due to his background in science and chemistry. He is the representative oversight role for the government in this project.
• German
  • Erik von Ulrich
    • Growing up in the late post-WW1 years, his education is strongly influenced by the propaganda spread in school by the NSDAP (Nazi regime). He joins the junior Nazi party, since this is what everyone else is doing and he doesn’t wish to be excluded like the few from his school. His parents are strongly against this regime, but he is blind to their arguments, calling them traitors when they discredit the regime, but he never gives them up to the Gestapo. Just before the war he signs up to study medicine and is in his second year of studies when the war breaks out. He joins the army, but is part of the medical team for the duration of the war.
    • During the late years of the war he encounters for the first time what is done to Jews that were found hidden in outer towns. A special division in the Nazi war party is responsible to take these prisoners away from the general view and executes them with a bullet. Seeing this, he sees that the regime he grew up with was a lie and is ashamed by who he joined.
    • When the war comes to an end he joins the communist party at home, hoping that this new party will bring better lives for its people. His family once again critize this new party, since it is also using violence trying to enforce their will and power, he is blind to their reasoning.
  • Carla von Ulrich
    • Carla has not been influenced as her brother has by the new regime in power. Nonetheless, she tries to secure a position to study medicine, only to be sent away. She decides to do the second best thing and becomes a nurse instead. For the duration of the war, the family suffers greatly, since there are food shortages at home. When their housemaid has a child, a special needs child, a doctor advises the child to be sent to a special clinic in Bayern. Soon, a letter informs them that the child had died due to a outbreak of measles. However, they become suspicious, since the child had had measles before and when they try and make enquiries, no one is willing to give them any clear answers. Carla and her friend Frieda decide to take a bicycle holiday and pop by this hospital. When they locate it, they are immediately shown away. At night, they receive a visitor from the hospital, a nurse. She informs them, that certain people are selected and then sent ‘to be cured’ to this hospital. However, on the second day of their stay, they are involuntarily euthanized and die. With the help of a priest they are able to expose this secret killing act (known today as Aktion T4) which was aimed at removing: people of certain races, people of advanced ages with costly future care and people with special needs. With the exposure, this plan is immediately halted by the regime, saying that this was not authorized at the top. Carla and Frieda continue to be nurses, but slowly come to realize that the best way to have this war come to an end is by collecting secret information and passing it along to the enemy, thereby sabotaging any future plan of the German offensive. Carla does join to collect this information, passes it on to Frieda, who then passes it to her brother, the contact to the Russians. After the war, Carla becomes a Social Democrat in the Bundestag and has married Werner Frank, her love from childhood.
  • Werner Frank
    • Werner’s father was a successful businessman before the war and therefore he enjoyed a priviledged education. At his school, he met diplomatic children from other countries and has strong international friends. His father’s business is useful to the war efforts, which permits Werner not to be conscripted to the frontlines but have a senior desk job in the Luftwaffe. Over his desk very important letters are passed before they head out to their various recipients. He becomes a spy for the Russian regime, his contact being Wolodja, his former school friend. In the late stages of the war, he hands his links over to Carla, in the hopes that she will be able to continue passing through secret information, since he is now called to the frontlines. However, she cannot collect more information and the war is slowly coming to an end.
• English
  • Boy Fitzherbert
    • As the heir count he enjoys a lavish upbringing. Women are throwing themselves at him, which gives him the feeling of power. He later marries Daisy Peshkov from Buffalo, America and soon after is sent to fight as a pilot. When his wife discovers that he had an affair, he doesn’t see it as a great problem, since most other royals and high-borns also have had affairs and therefore continues with his affair. Sometime later he is exposed to the measles and struggles to sire an heir with his wife, making his parents nervous. When it becomes apparent, thanks to a visit to the doctor’s, that he won’t have children, the younger brother is let known that he will inherit the title of their estate upon his death. During one battle, Boy flies his plane over the French territories controlled by the Germans and is shot down. Soon after he dies from his wounds.
  • Lloyd Williams
    • He visits Germany with his mother when the Nazi party has ruled over Germany only for a few years, because Ethel Williams wants to write a book on this ‘fascism’ topic. During this stage, he is involved in a local riot and is arrested. He is brought to an undisclosed location, where a man is horrendously tortured, whereafter he returns to England. After seeing what fascism is about he knows that it is something that must be stopped. Even in the UK, a fascist party has emerged (British Union of Fascists). They wish to make they presence known by staging a parade through town. The other social parties are advised to remain at home so that no conflict results. However, the Socialists emerge in overwhelming numbers and prevent the walk to happen. Soon after, the party breaks down and doesn’t become able to gain political influence as their German counterparts. There is currently a civil war brewing in Spain. Fascist leader Francisco Franco against the democratic regime. Lloyd signs up and sails to France, where he will then travel to join the Spaniards to fight against the fascists. In the end, he is involved in a battle where he is wounded and then returns to camp to be sent back to Britain on discharge.
    • Lloyd signs up to fight in the war, but is soon re-assigned to assist the army in another way. Since he had secretly joined the Spanish during their civil war, he had obtained skills to sneak in and out of France. Now, he should assist in finding allied soldiers in French territories and sneak them over the border to neutral Spain. After the war, he marries Daisy and becomes a political candidate of the Lower House.
• Russian
  • Wolodja Peschkow
    • Stepson of Grigori, who has achieved remarkable success post the 1917 Russian Revolution and steadily climbed the ladder in the government ever since. His son has done the same, but has joined the spy agency of the government instead. Before the WW2 happens, he is sent to Spain to find out whether there are any German fascists amongst the international volunteers so that these may be found out and converted to Russian spies. During the WW2 Wolodja keeps up with his spy network in Germany and continues to deliver vital information for the planned attacks on the eastern front.
    • In the late stages of the war he is sent to America, since they have heard that America has been researching a bomb so powerful that it could be devastating to other countries post WW2. He meets up with another of his school friends that had emigrated from Germany and assisted on the Manhatten project. This friend sees it reasonable that two nations should have the secret to such bombs, so that each one would scare the other one off not to use theirs.

In the early years post-WW2, the Allied forces (USA, Britain, France and Russia) split Germany and Berlin into four sectors, each occupied by one of them. The first three decide to assist Germany to rebuild itself so that it can run itself as its own country, so that they can all return to their own countries. Russia does not wish Germany to rebuild itself. Thus, it occurs that a western and eastern German bloc are created.

Summary:

The book is once again quite fantastically describes and follows the lives of the different characters in their own country. Something that it has also done quite well is to clearly show the reader, that Nazi Germany was run by a group of people that held fascists views. This rule was tyrannical, and not supported by all people living in the country. It also shows that during this stage of the century, fascism was not solely something that took root in Germany, but in multiple different countries in Europe. It was only in Germany where it was not broken before it dealt the damage that it did.

The book receives a rating of 4,4/5.

Have a good weekend!