Greatreads

Two excellent, worthwhile summer reads (or listens, if you’re an audiobook lover) are by the author Ken Follett. But these are not his usual fair of modern thriller. Instead they both take place hundreds of years ago, and are, at the author’s admission, his favorites (indeed, his best money makers!) The most recent is steeped in 14th Century England and the first one in the 11th Century. Don’t be mistaken, these novels are very modern in focus and tone — the heroines and heroes are every bit the person you yourself would want to be. Both novels take place in the fictional village of Kingsbridge, England and show how that village changes over two hundred years. It doesn’t matter which book you read first, as far as the story lines go, as both are filled with murder, intrigue, jealousy, love, disappointment, success and failure. There are legions of characters interacting in thoroughly unpredictable ways, although Follett is often predictably heavy on foreshadowing, just as he apparently is in his modern forays. The books are well researched; they bring you deliciously through Medieval England: the Plague, building cathedrals, priories, nunneries, hospitals, castles and bridges, while all of the central characters (and the mnor ones as well) fall in and out of love, vie for riches, achive their dreams or lose everything and die.We visit the lives of the nobility, the clergy, townspeople and farmers, businesspeople, merchants, serfs and servants. We meet with everything from supreme kindness to thoughtless malice —as well as just plain stupidity. You will not be bored for a moment. Follett presents us with real people living believable lives and it’s all quite meaningful. I’ve never read a Follett book before, and truthfully, it doesn’t interest me to read another. But these... these two novels were mesmerizing.

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for another staff selection!