Alas I found myself unable to really engage with the characters, finding them rather cardboard cutout. I could not help feeling that each was created purely to act as a vehicle to show key historical moments and most of the conversations they had, tended to give us lengthy history lessons. The fact that they seemed to somehow turn up at key points of world events of the time, I found clunky. Walter’s troops reach the River Marne. Gus’s division also arrives there to hold the defense. In the fighting, Gus proves he has the makings of a useful officer. A bullet breaks Walter’s shinbone. The Germans retreat from the Marne. Walter wakes up in hospital to learn that the Americans have taken up the position on the south bank of the river. There is another American victory at Bois de Belleau.

From July to October 1916, Grigori has become a bit of a revolutionary and protects his own platoon from the front lines. When Major Azov demands they march through the swamp, Grigori slows his platoon down, knowing they will die if they continue on. As men retreat, Azov demands they shoot the traitors, so Grigori kills him. He is stationed in the capital to protect the royal family as the peasants are beginning to mutiny. Eventually, he finds Katerina and her son, Vladimir, and learns that the heavy price of inflation has stopped her from living a comfortable life. She admits she loves Grigori instead of Lev and the two sleep together. This was a book really worth listening to. Not only was this due to Follett's strong narrative skills but because it was read by John Lee: he read with calm objectivity which linked his outstanding management of the many voices and the accents ??? wonderful acting. a thirteen-year-old boy, Billy Williams, begins working down the mines as George V is crowned king. The escalating arms race between the empire nations will put not only the king but this young boy in grave danger. Also contemplate Ethel and Maud’s work as women’s rights advocates. Were there aspects of each woman’s personal life that seemed at odds with her commitment to advancing the cause of women? I really wanted to like this book. I have been a keen student of 20th century history since high school, 40 years ago.

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Walter blames his father and his father’s generation for the prolonged war. The American Expeditionary Force landed in France in June 1917, despite the arrogant assurances of the German leadership that it would not. All now depends on Russia withdrawing from the war.

As Grigori finishes his story, he cleans Katerina’s wounds and falls instantly in love with her. He tells her of the death of his mother, killed on Bloody Sunday in 1905 when the workers marched to the Winter Palace to plead to the tsar for redress of grievances.Many real historical figures appear in your novel, including President Woodrow Wilson and Winston Churchill. How closely did you follow the historical record in portraying them? A week later, Billy takes part in the informal services at Bethesda Chapel, praying for understanding of the hard-heartedness of the mine directors, whose negligence caused so many deaths and injuries. Gus Dewar now works as an advisor to President Woodrow Wilson. He is also having an affair with Caroline Wigmore, the wife of his former Harvard professor. Major characters introduced after the party include Grigori and Lev Peshkov, two Russian orphans who work in a locomotive factory and have personal reasons to hold a grudge against Princess Bea and the rest of the Russian royal family. Grigori and Lev's father was executed by Bea's aristocratic family for alleged improper grazing of cattle on Bea's family's land.