This was my first book to read by Ken Follett. What a wonderful book!
This book will have you thinking even as you turn the last page. Based on a true, young Danish hero, this book will keep you spell-bound! Love,family,espionage, and unfathomable risks, I will be recommending this book to my book club!
It's June 1941 and hte war is not going well for England. Somehow, the Germans are anticipating the RAF's flight paths, and shooting down British bombers with impunity. Meanwhile, across the North Sea, 18 year-old Harald Olufsen takes a shortcut on the German-occupied Danish island of Sande and discovers an astonishing sight. He doesn't know what it is, but he knows he must tell someone. And when he learns the truth, it will fall upon him to deliver the word to England--except that he has no way to get there. He has only an old derelict Hornet Moth biplane rusting away in a ruined church: a plane so decrepit that it is unlikely to ever get off the ground...even if Harald knew how to fly it.
First Ken Follett book I have found disappointing. Interesting premise, Follett's usual great writing, but ruined by a totally unbelievable sequence toward the end when the heroes delay saving the world to go to a ballet. If was as if Follett finished the book too quickly and needed a couple more chapters so he came up with this bit of foolishness. I'll continue to read Follett, but I sure hope they will show more reasonable plotting than this one.
This is one of my favorite Follett books. Fun but thrilling, based on a true story. Not too closely based, but that makes it even better. I'm not usually a big WWII fiction fan but this one is worth reading.
Ken himself says of it:
"I came across an extraordinary story about two Danes who wanted to escape from German-occupied Denmark in 1941. They wanted to get to England, but of course would have to cross the Channel. They decided to do this in a dilapidated Hornet Moth a small fabric-and-wood biplane. So they fixed it up, stole parts and petrol for it, and eventually took off and flew across the Channel, which was a very hazardous journey in such a small plane.. Needless to say, several RAF fighters were scrambled to investigate, but the young men hung a white towel out of the window, and managed to land safely in a field."
Typical Ken Follett style. A real page turner.
nice idea but abrupt ending after I actually kindda cared about the characters. Obviously a "get it finished and get paid" book.
Lovely non-fiction, grades 1-2.
