Circle of Days
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4.1 • 926 Ratings
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!
From a bestselling author of epic fiction comes the deeply human story of one of the world’s greatest mysteries: the building of Stonehenge.
"Superb." —Lee Childs, New York Times bestselling author of the Jack Reacher series
A FLINT MINER WITH A GIFT
Seft, a talented flint miner, walks the Great Plain in the high summer heat, to witness the rituals that signal the start of a new year. He is there to trade his stone at the Midsummer Fair, and to find Neen, the girl he loves. Her family lives in prosperity and offer Seft an escape from his brutish father and brothers within their herder community.
A PRIESTESS WHO BELIEVES THE IMPOSSIBLE
Joia, Neen’s sister, is a priestess with a vision and an unmatched ability to lead. As a child, she watches the Midsummer ceremony, enthralled, and dreams of a miraculous new monument, raised from the biggest stones in the world. But trouble is brewing among the hills and woodlands of the Great Plain.
A MONUMENT THAT WILL DEFINE A CIVILIZATION
Joia’s vision of a great stone circle, assembled by the divided tribes of the Plain, will inspire Seft and become their life’s work. But as drought ravages the earth, mistrust grows between the herders, farmers and woodlanders—and an act of savage violence leads to open warfare ...
Truly ambitious in scope, Circle of Days invites you to join master storyteller Ken Follett in exploring one of the greatest mysteries of all time.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In this engrossing novel, Ken Follett offers his take on one of antiquity’s greatest mysteries: the building and meaning of Stonehenge. Follett takes us back in time to 2500 BCE. Here, priestess Joia and her former flint-mining brother-in-law, Seft, seek to unite the troubled region with a remarkable feat of ancient engineering. Follett spins a sprawling historical yarn with this riveting, well-researched book about Neolithic England, filled with intriguing ideas about prehistoric life. He sketches a credible world of farmers, herders, and woodlanders as they deal with drought, famine, family, and spirituality. Gather your clan and stoke the fire for a trek through the origins of an iconic world wonder.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Follett (The Kingsbridge series) offers an engrossing tale of the neolithic British Isles and the construction of the Stonehenge monument. The narrative is grounded in the parallel stories of Seft, a flint miner and craftsman; and Joia, the sister of the woman he loves, who aspires to become a priestess. Seft is the youngest son of a physically abusive widower, who treats him like a slave, prompting him to flee home and take a position with Wun, another miner, who's impressed by Seft's work ethic and creative approach to repairing a damaged lintel. His life continues to look up after he falls for Neen, a young woman he met at the Spring Rite. They become a couple and eventually start a family. Meanwhile, Joia is enraptured by the songs and dances at the Monument, a wooden structure surrounding a sacred circle. As farmers and herders clash over the use of common land, the Monument is destroyed. In the aftermath, Seft devotes himself to the task of rebuilding the site, which will become Stonehenge. Follett builds tension as Seft grapples with the engineering challenge of transporting such large stones to the site, and keeps the reader invested in the story with well-developed characters. The author's fans will be pleased.
Customer Reviews
Stonehenge
Fascinating story. I couldn’t put it down
Tiresome
If this is supposed to be a story about Stonehenge, then I would have liked to have seen some mention of it in the afterword and the research done to give it at least the patina of historical truth rather than just a tired novel.
Don’t get me wrong. I’ve read every one of Ken Follett’s books, but this one missed the mark.
Great story
Interesting interpretation of how whoever built Stonehenge would have been motivated to do the incredible thing that they did