{"product_id":"fall-of-giants-isbn-9780451232571","title":"Fall of Giants","description":"\u003cb\u003eKen Follett’s magnificent historical epic begins as five interrelated families move through the momentous dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for women’s suffrage.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA thirteen-year-old Welsh boy enters a man’s world in the mining pits. . . . An American law student rejected in love finds a surprising new career in Woodrow Wilson’s White House. . . . A housekeeper for the aristocratic Fitzherberts takes a fateful step above her station, while Lady Maud Fitzherbert herself crosses deep into forbidden territory when she falls in love with a German spy. . . . And two orphaned Russian brothers embark on radically different paths when their plan to emigrate to America falls afoul of war, conscription, and revolution. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom the dirt and danger of a coal mine to the glittering chandeliers of a palace, from the corridors of power to the bedrooms of the mighty, \u003ci\u003eFall of Giants\u003c\/i\u003e takes us into the inextricably entangled fates of five families—and into a century that we thought we knew, but that now will never seem the same again. . . .\u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eFall of Giants\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Follett is masterly in conveying so much drama and historical information so vividly . . . grippingly told.\" —\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"Follett conjures the winds of war.\" —\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A good read. . . . It's a book that will suck you in, consume you for days or weeks . . . then let you out the other side both entertained \u003ci\u003eand\u003c\/i\u003e educated. That's quite the feat.\" —\u003ci\u003eUSA Today\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"Grand in scope, scale, and story.\" —The Associated Press\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"Follett entwines fiction and factual events well. . . . This is a dark novel, motivated by an unsparing view of human nature and a clear-eyed scrutiny of an ideal peace. It is not the least of Follett's feats that the reader finishes this near thousand-page book intrigued and wanting more.\" —\u003ci\u003eChicago Sun-Times\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Fascinating, in a big way.\" —\u003ci\u003eSt. Louis Post-Dispatch\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eFall of Giants\u003c\/i\u003e is a book for you to savor, one in which you can lose yourself for hours on end. It is a big book that tells a big story, but it is one you will not want to end.\" —\u003ci\u003eThe Huffington Post\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Follett once again creates a world at once familiar and fantastic. . . . A guiltless pleasure, the book is impossible to put down. . . . Empires fall. Heroes rise. Love conquers. After going through a war with these characters, you're left hoping that Follett gets moving with the next giant installment.\" —\u003ci\u003eTime Out New York \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A suspenseful epic.\" —\u003ci\u003eThe Seattle Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Tantalizing.\" —\u003ci\u003eNewsday\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eKen Follett\u003c\/b\u003e is one of the world’s best-loved authors, selling more than 160 million copies of his thirty books. Follett’s first bestseller was \u003ci\u003eEye of the Needle\u003c\/i\u003e, a spy story set in the Second World War. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 1989 \u003ci\u003eThe Pillars of the Earth \u003c\/i\u003ewas published, and has since become the author’s most successful novel. It reached number one on bestseller lists around the world and was an Oprah’s Book Club pick.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eIts sequels, \u003ci\u003eWorld Without End \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eA Column of Fire\u003c\/i\u003e, proved equally popular, and the Kingsbridge series has sold 38 million copies worldwide.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eFollett lives in Hertfordshire, England, with his wife Barbara. Between them they have five children, six grandchildren, and three Labradors.\u003cb\u003eCHAPTER TWO\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJanuary 1914\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eE\u003c\/b\u003earl Fitzherbert, age twenty-eight, known to his family and friends as Fitz, was the ninth-richest man in Britain.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe had done nothing to earn his huge income. He had simply inherited thousands of acres of land in Wales and Yorkshire. The farms made little money, but there was coal beneath them, and by licensing mineral rights Fitz’s grandfather had become enormously wealthy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eClearly God intended the Fitzherberts to rule over their fellow men, and to live in appropriate style; but Fitz felt he had not done much to justify God’s faith in him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHis father, the previous earl, had been different. A naval officer, he had been made admiral after the bombardment of Alexandria in 1882, had become the British ambassador to St. Petersburg, and finally had been a minister in the government of Lord Salisbury. The Conservatives lost the general election of 1906, and Fitz’s father died a few weeks later—his end hastened, Fitz felt sure, by seeing irresponsible Liberals such as David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill take over His Majesty’s government.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFitz had taken his seat in the House of Lords, the upper chamber of the British Parliament, as a Conservative peer. He spoke good French and he could get by in Russian, and he would have liked one day to be his country’s foreign secretary. Regrettably, the Liberals had continued to win elections, so he had had no chance yet of becoming a government minister.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHis military career had been equally undistinguished. He had attended the army’s officer training academy at Sandhurst, and had spent three years with the Welsh Rifles, ending as a captain. On marriage he had given up full-time soldiering, but had become honorary colonel of the South Wales Territorials. Unfortunately an honorary colonel never won medals.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHowever, he did have something to be proud of, he thought as the train steamed up through the South Wales valleys. In two weeks’ time, the king was coming to stay at Fitz’s country house. King George V and Fitz’s father had been shipmates in their youth. Recently the king had expressed a wish to know what the younger men were thinking, and Fitz had organized a discreet house party for His Majesty to meet some of them. Now Fitz and his wife, Bea, were on their way to the house to get everything ready.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFitz cherished traditions. Nothing known to mankind was superior to the comfortable order of monarchy, aristocracy, merchant, and peasant. But now, looking out of the train window, he saw a threat to the British way of life greater than any the country had faced for a hundred years. Covering the once-green hillsides, like a gray-black leaf blight on a rhododendron bush, were the terraced houses of the coal miners. In those grimy hovels there was talk of republicanism, atheism, and revolt. It was only a century or so since the French nobility had been driven in carts to the guillotine, and the same would happen here if some of those muscular black-faced miners had their way.","brand":"Penguin Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302306894053,"sku":"NP9780451232571","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780451232571.jpg?v=1767726683","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/fall-of-giants-isbn-9780451232571","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}