In the introduction to his first contemporary novel in a decade, Ken Follett writes that during the course of research for a previous book he had discovered that the First World War was a war that nobody wanted or intended, but that "Emperors and Prime Ministers, one by one, made decisions - logical, moderate decisions - each of which took us a small step closer to the most terrible conflict the world had ever known. I came to believe it was all a tragic accident and I wondered: could that happen again?" It's a great premise for a novel, but one that could easily go awry.
Never is Follett's answer to his question, and in his book details a strong of disparate and seemingly unconnected global events that eventually lead to a modern day Sarajevo (metaphorically speaking - none of the action takes place in Bosnia) placing the world on the brink of an even more terrible conflict.
So we have the killing of an American soldier by the Islamic State in Chad, and a skirmish on that country's border with Sudan. A female American President - a moderate Republican (and in this we can be reassured the book is fictional) - grapples with the emergence of a populist, nuke-em-now, ask-questions-later challenger. In China, a young progressive leader of the external intelligence agency struggles for power and influence against old guard Community hawks. The action flashes back and forth between a dozen locations including the South China Sea, North Korea the Cote d'Azur, the Libyan desert and the cyberworld that is the new theatre of action in modern geopolitical strife.
As one comes to expect of Follett, Never is a meticulously researched novel in which he illustrates the interconnectedness and dependence of global events, the fragility of the status quo and the extensive global interests of the superpowers.
It's a welcome return to the thriller from a writer who is a master of pacing a story, with his foot on the accelerator where it needs to be, but stopping to explore personal, political and economic detail where the story demands it.
Never is always entertaining, often enlightening and sometimes scary. It feels like the perfect novel to start 2022 with.
PS: Follett is primarily associated now with the Kingsbridge and Century books, but thrillers used to be his bread and butter. A couple of years ago, I read Eye of the Needle, a gem of a spy novel set in the Scottish islands in the run up to D Day. It's well worth a look.