De Century-trilogie van Ken Follett is een epische vertelling over de gebeurtenissen die de 20e eeuw hebben gevormd. Via de lotgevallen van families uit verschillende landen en sociale klassen schetst de auteur een wereld van oorlogen, politieke intriges, liefde, machtsstrijd en dagelijkse keuzes. Van de loopgraven van de Eerste Wereldoorlog tot de gespannen jaren dertig en de verwoestingen van de Tweede Wereldoorlog, biedt Follett een meeslepend beeld van een eeuw in verandering. Door historische nauwkeurigheid te combineren met avontuur en romantiek, behoort deze trilogie tot de meest indrukwekkende historische romans van onze tijd.
Follows the fate of five interrelated families - American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh - as they move through the dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for women's suffrage.
The story follows characters from Germany, Britain, the USA and the Soviet Union, who become linked by events leading to World War II, and continues through the war and its immediate aftermath.
When Rebecca Hoffmann, a teacher in East Germany, finds herself pursued by the secret police, she discovers that she has been living a lie. Her younger brother, Walli, longs to escape across the Berlin Wall to Britain to become part of the burgeoning music scene. In the United States, George Jakes, a bright young lawyer in the Kennedy administration, is a fierce supporter of the Civil Rights movement - as is the woman he is in love with, Verena, who works for Martin Luther King, Jr. Boarding a Greyhound bus in Washington to protest against segregation, they begin a fateful journey together. Russian activist, Tania Dvorkin, narrowly evades capture for producing an illegal news sheet. Her actions are made all the more perilous as her brother, Dimka, is a rising star in the heart of the Communist Party in the Kremlin.