I still remember the first time I browsed through the pages of this novel at Crosswords in Ahmedabad where I bought it. I was wiling away my time in the book store, when I got this in my hands. Unlike all book-o-philiacs, who read the back cover first to understand the storyline, I open some page in the middle of the book and read it first, and see if I like it. I also read the back cover but after this ritual. In this case , I opened the prologue and this is what I saw.....
An Extract from the Prologue :
(The author was gardening in his flower patch and finds a old package in an oil cloth bag....)
The other item was an oil cloth bag. That too was rotten, and when I touched it with my gardening gloves it disintegrated. Inside was an iron ring about six inches across. It was tarnished but the oil cloth bag had prevented it from rusting.
It looked crudely made, probably by a village blacksmith, and I first thought it might have been part of a cart or plow. But why had someone wrapped it in oil cloth to preserve it? There was a break in the ring and it had been bent. I began to think of it as a collar that some prisoner had been forced to wear. When the prisoner escaped, the ring had been broken with a heavy blacksmith’s tool, and then bent to get it off.
I took it to the house and started to clean it up.....as I polished it
with a rag , an inscription became visible. It was engraved in old
fashioned curly writing, and it took me a while to figure it out, but this is what it said:
’’THIS MAN IS THE PROPERTY OF
SIR GEORGE JAMISSON OF FIFE’’
It’s here on my desk, besides the computer. I use it as a
paperweight. I often pick it up and turn it in my hands, rereading that inscription.If the iron collar could talk, I think to myself, what kind of story would it tell.....
This is the prologue..now tell me...who will not be charged enough to read this book...Welcome to ’’The Place called Freedom’’
About the Author:
Starting with Eye of the Needle, I have most of his novels like Man from St.Petersburg, Key to Rebecca, Third Twin and a few others. But I have personally liked this book the best. His early age novels were all spy thrillers but he slowly moved on to historical fiction and peaked there.By the way, I came to know from his website that both Ken Follett and his wife are members of the British Parliment.
The storyline:
The story begins in High Glen, Scotland, where Malachi McAsh a.k.a Mack is born and raised as a youth into the hands of slavery. High Glen is a mining town where a mine owned by Lord George Jamisson, is where every youth is chained for life. His ancestors have worked their lifetimes there and he is destined for the same.
Mack however has other plans, he yearns to be free, he dreams of living a life life a free bird and grows up to be one of the few children who can read and write in the little town. (In every book, I have really loved, the protagonist plays roles which are like David , in the David Vs Goliath story, the same goes here).The story is every much like any Zamindar- harijan story seen many-a-times in Indian movies.
The book is a moving account of how Mack escapes from High Glen, how Lizzie Hallim, another marvelously etched character of a beautiful girl who believes in liberated and modern ideas on society and relationships, though belonging to the high society in the village, falls in love with Mack’s ideals, but ends up marrying Jay Jamisson.
Mack escapes from High Glen one icy cold night and here starts the real story.... The story of one courageous man, who escapes from the slave mines of Scotland and journeys across continents from slavery to freedom.
Fate it seems, will never let true lovers part. Mack meets Lizzie,
again in London, but Lizzie is married to Jamisson, their love ignites again, then again the journey into America -in search of freedom - in search of love.....
Buy this book, to get an inspiring read on the life of Mack? This book is a great read because in parts , I identified myself in it. The book might have been set in the 1700s but not much water has flown between then and now as far as many things are concerned.
I found this book a very moving one...and though this was very
different from the regular style of writing of Ken Follett’s other
novels. It is defenitely one of the best reads of Ken Follett...
Moonraker
Read it...because after all, ’freedom’ is why we are all here at
MouthShut, Are’nt we? To voice our views with freedom, to break boundaries through the power of technology. Mouthshut - I feel is the ultimate land of freedom of expression...
Mouthshut to me is ’’The Place called Freedom’’