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30th out of 139 books
—
90 voters
Kane and Abel (Kane & Abel #1)
William Lowell Kane and Abel Rosnovski, one the son of a Boston millionaire, the other a penniless Polish immigrant-born on the same day near the turn of the century on opposite sides of the world-are brought together by fate and the quest of a dream. Two men - ambitious, powerful, ruthless - are locked in a relentless struggle to build an empire, fueled by their all-consu...more
Kindle Edition, 596 pages
Published
(first published 1979)
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Oct 22, 2012
Ankit Agrawal
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Everyone, Fiction Lovers
I don't think so one can ever read a better Fiction than this. What is it that this book didn't have? You can't set any particular genre for it. It had thrill, mystery, drama, contemporary, historical fiction and what not. Oh....! I forgot to mention one thing. It ended with a sense of moral thought. It showed the way people live their modern day lives. Everybody running in one direction, running after money. Money seems to be everything to all of us. But there's an old saying Money can't buy yo...more
Mar 19, 2013
Two Bibliomaniacs
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
evan-top-1-100
With such a clear allusion to the dysfunctional brothers in Genesis, we were intrigued. Would the Able character in Jeffrey Archer’s novel suffer a cruel fate at the hands of his brother? Does the title even refer to a pair of brothers? Does the title even refer to people? Is Jeffery Archer even a real person? These questions plagued us for several months, until finally, we decided to pursue the sensible option and just read the book.
William Lowell Kane and Abel Rosnovski are not brothers. In fa...more
William Lowell Kane and Abel Rosnovski are not brothers. In fa...more
5 likes
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One of the best books I've ever read. Two men from different backgrounds meet and impact on each others lives. One extremely rich and one a poor refugee from the world war travels to America to make a name for himself. Well written with interesting charaters and story. Well worth a read.
7 likes
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Jan 31, 2008
Kellie
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Kellie by:
Mother
Shelves:
2008-reads,
fiction-literature
This was a book my mother recommended to me. She read it several years ago and remembered how good it was. And oh how good it was. This is a great story that is told over about 60 years from Europe to America. Archer tells 2 parallel stories. One about Abel Rosnovki and one about William Kane. The story is so well told and so interesting that I felt torn between the two main characters and their stories. You feel pulled away from one story line when Archer takes you to the next. I enjoyed Archer...more
24 likes
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An intensely played out, high-powered drama. A story of two very different men belonging to two different social classes, driven by their aspirations of success, wealth, power and a life-long feud based on inaccurate assumptions and misunderstandings. A fitting ending to boot.
اذا أردتم ان تسألوني اي روايات جيفرى آرتشر هي الافضل فلن استطيع الاجابة.. باختصار كل رواية من روايته بحد ذاتها هي عالم ممتع و مثير و مسلي لأبعد حد !
i read it on my hubbys recommendation. its his favourite book out of the four books that he read in his life :p that is why i thought twice before reading it.
and i LOVED it!!!! enjoyed a lot :) it made me cry
it made me laugh and it made me think.
and i LOVED it!!!! enjoyed a lot :) it made me cry
it made me laugh and it made me think.
A fantastic read with lots of twists and turns. Jam packed with surprises. Very good love story for general fiction.
3 likes
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I think this has to be the best book I have ever read. I keep recommending it to everyone so much so a friend of mine believes I have shares in the publishing world! I was completely surprised when I read this book. What I thought it would be like and what was delivered far exceeded my expectations.
You end up liking both characters despite them conflicting with each other. The ending is remarkable. It is so engrossing that you can actually imagine and visualise what they experienced both physic...more
You end up liking both characters despite them conflicting with each other. The ending is remarkable. It is so engrossing that you can actually imagine and visualise what they experienced both physic...more
7 likes
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Buku ini aku baca saat jaman kuliah dulu, pinjem di perpustakaan daerah Bandung (maklum anak kuliah belum mampu beli hehe). menceritakan kisah 2 orang dengan latar belakang yang bertolak belakang. Kane adalah anak orang yang hidupnya berkecukupan, pendidikan yang tinggi dan bisnis keluarga yang maju sehingga tidak ada masalah berat yang dihadapinya. Kebalikan dengan Abel, anak orang miskin dan harus bertahan hidup dengan cara apapun (termasuk membunuh jika diperlukan). Namun akhirnya dengan perj...more
1 like
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i liked the pace of the book and the twists it offered. the numerous finance/stock-market jargons were foreign to me, but could follow the overall turn of events nevertheless. the story was not boring at any point of time and maintained the reader's interest. I was travelling while reading the book, and didn't feel sleepy or could put it down at any point.. ;-) More jeffrey archer on my to-read list now.. :)
Oct 04, 2009
Luann
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Luann by:
Geri C
I felt this was a little long, but not overly long for a book that takes you through the lives of two different men from birth all the way through death. Although their lives are very different, the parallels between their lives are as interesting as the contrasts. I especially enjoyed the parts when their lives would intersect in unexpected ways. There were a few places that dragged, but just when I would start thinking, "All right, we don't need to read about every single day in their lives" s...more
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I am a huge Archer fan, having read majority of his works. Kane and Abel series had been on my reading list far too long, so I finally picked it up. What a story! Archer's writings are a full-package and it gives the reader everything possible- thrill, love, romance, jealously, mystery, irony, tyranny, and many other things, all of them packaged on a grand, sweeping and epic scale. This novel is no different, and does not disappoint.
Having read most of his books, I can say with certainty that th...more
Having read most of his books, I can say with certainty that th...more
Jeffrey Archer did me a favor. He wrote a family saga that didn't become cloying, romantic or trite. Kane and Abel has all the elements of the genre at their best.
The book begins in 1906. In Poland, a child is born penniless. In Boston, on the same day, a child is born into a life of wealth and privilege. These men, Abel and Kane respectively, are the center of Archer's multi-generational novel. As we follow their stories, we're immersed into two very different worlds. Worlds that, eventually, c...more
The book begins in 1906. In Poland, a child is born penniless. In Boston, on the same day, a child is born into a life of wealth and privilege. These men, Abel and Kane respectively, are the center of Archer's multi-generational novel. As we follow their stories, we're immersed into two very different worlds. Worlds that, eventually, c...more
Nov 07, 2011
Lisa (Harmonybites)
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Lisa (Harmonybites) by:
The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Ultimate Reading List
It was clear from the start that this wasn't great literature by any means--but for the first part of around 200 pages I found it gripping. One of those sagas where you enjoy a panorama of history and watching two powerful characters clashing. The story follows two men born on the same day in 1906. William Kane Lowell, a Boston Brahmin and Abel Rosnovski, the illegitimate son of a Polish baron. We follow their parallel but contrasting from boyhood. Both prove themselves at first both extraordina...more
A narrative that spans over sixty years --between 1906 and 1967-- it tells the parallel lives of Abel, a Polish immigrant, and Kane, a business genius born with a silver spoon. Archer immediately catches the attention of the reader with a brilliant opening sentence. "She only stopped screaming when she died." And that's Abel's mother, who expires anonymously, while her baby son is rescued by a Polish family with very limited means and many mouths to feed. Despite his fragile beginnings the baby,...more
So far , the best I have read.....life of two persons, abel rosnowski born in poland and william lowel kane born in america....former had a very horrible childhood in which he saw the death of his father and sister in front of his eyes,escaped from a prison camp after being captured by russians and was on the verge of losing his hand .....his father gave him a bracelet of gold which he cared more than himself
on the other hand , william was the child born with silver spoon in the mouth ....lost h...more
on the other hand , william was the child born with silver spoon in the mouth ....lost h...more
I've read this before, a long while ago, and I wasn't that bothered about reading it again. Except, it was on my Book List to read and then Amazon gave it away for free for a short while. With all those circumstances, who was I to say no?
What intrigues me about this book is the style of writing. When I am trying my hand at fiction, I always worry that I am skipping ahead, missing important bits, trying to cover too much time in too short a word count.
Here, Archer is the master at covering two en...more
What intrigues me about this book is the style of writing. When I am trying my hand at fiction, I always worry that I am skipping ahead, missing important bits, trying to cover too much time in too short a word count.
Here, Archer is the master at covering two en...more
Great book! I was never quite sure which character (Kane or Abel) I liked or disliked. My thoughts and feelings were brilliantly bounced back and forth by Archer, eventually leading me to like both for different yet similar reasons. They're life struggles are very different yet very similar. This is difficult to explain here but very well written and yarned together by Archer. In the end, it's quite sad that both characters led their entire lives in search of wealth and power to the detriment of...more
The gentlemen in Archer's Kane and Able are incredibly frustrating! The lengthy battle for power that the two main characters engage in is drawn out and exhausting. You spend an exorbitant amount of time watching each man grow into his own fortune and power and then the rest of the time is spent watching them waste that same fortune and power, not to mention years of their lives, in a constant misplaced and unnecessary feud for revenge. Both men are annoying in their own right but I found Abel d...more
this is one of the best books i've ever read....
now if i wud go in detail i'll write the whole story therefore i wont go in that detail but what i think of this book is that i loved the part of book written about william kane...and i didn't like the part about abel... who was the most selfish person ever... it was kane who had saved him form bankrupcy, although abel did not know it but still there was no point of him forming enmity with william kane...and it was kane who suffered most... i reall...more
now if i wud go in detail i'll write the whole story therefore i wont go in that detail but what i think of this book is that i loved the part of book written about william kane...and i didn't like the part about abel... who was the most selfish person ever... it was kane who had saved him form bankrupcy, although abel did not know it but still there was no point of him forming enmity with william kane...and it was kane who suffered most... i reall...more
I read this book because my book club had picked it. Can that sound any more insulting? I think I'd read it before, when I was a lot younger. I know that it is on my mother's bookshelf, she was very excited when she heard that the book club had chosen it. Anyhoo, it is bad. And not in a way that "it is so bad it is good", it is just bad in a way that "pulling nostril hairs with a pair of pliers" is no fun at all.
You get the feeling that Mr. Archer came up with the title during an evening's drink...more
You get the feeling that Mr. Archer came up with the title during an evening's drink...more
8 likes
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In 1906, two baby boys are born in wildly different circumstances: one in the comfort of Boston’s best private hospital surrounded by doctors and adoring relatives and the other in a Polish forest accidentally discovered by a hunter. So begin the lives of William Kane and Abel Rosnovski. Because the chapters alternate between William’s and Abel’s lives, one might first think that this novel will be about two boys who switch places at birth, or shortly thereafter. When that doesn’t happen the rea...more
Oct 26, 2012
Rikke
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
historical-fiction,
family-saga
Gold fever. We all know the phenomenon; an obsession, a never-ending fascination and a desperate need for more. As I read this book I experienced something similar; reading fever.
When I first began reading this book, I simply couldn't stop. I wouldn't stop. It wasn't even possible. With an almost destructive greed I had to read on, to keep turning the thin pages - and when I finally reached the end, and there were no more pages to turn, I felt completely empty, saddened by the fact, that the bo...more
When I first began reading this book, I simply couldn't stop. I wouldn't stop. It wasn't even possible. With an almost destructive greed I had to read on, to keep turning the thin pages - and when I finally reached the end, and there were no more pages to turn, I felt completely empty, saddened by the fact, that the bo...more
Aug 23, 2012
Mindy Jones
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Anyone, I suppose.
Decent. The book was well written and I liked it well enough for a book that I just picked up at the train station. The edition had quite a few editorial errors though, so that was annoying (double phrases, spelling errors, etc).
Overall, I'd give the book a pass. Good enough to be a nice read, though unremarkable in most other aspects. Several times throughout, I felt like Archer was trying to write the next East of Eden, at least subject matter-wise and I couldn't help but compare it because of...more
Overall, I'd give the book a pass. Good enough to be a nice read, though unremarkable in most other aspects. Several times throughout, I felt like Archer was trying to write the next East of Eden, at least subject matter-wise and I couldn't help but compare it because of...more
Kane and Abel is a story of two men born on the same day on the opposite sides of the world. One is Polish, the other, American, fates intertwined in their epic and passionate quest for wealth and power that would also be the cause of their ruin.
One word to describe Jeffrey Archer's narrative: SPELLBINDING. Spanning decades, the story of Kane and Abel is packed with all the good things and bad things that happen to characters we love and hate and in the end shed tears for, not without a mix of...more
One word to describe Jeffrey Archer's narrative: SPELLBINDING. Spanning decades, the story of Kane and Abel is packed with all the good things and bad things that happen to characters we love and hate and in the end shed tears for, not without a mix of...more
Kane & Abel is an epic tale following the lives of William Kane and Abel Rosnovski. The two men are born on the same day in 1906 into drastically different situations – Kane into Bostonian wealth and Abel into Polish poverty. The reader is in for a real journey as they infants grow into young prodigies, they both face setbacks, and they both display a domineering will to succeed. The timeframe for this book includes two World Wars, the Great Depression, McCarthyism, and the election of John...more
GREAT STORY TO ENJOY IMMENSELY
It is about two men of two different backgrounds born in the same day, one, William, born in a golden Wasp conservative affluent family of Boston, owners of a powerful bank, the other, Wladek (Abel) a Pole, born in extreme poverty, forced to flee his homeland Poland after witnessing and suffering the atrocities of the war waged by the Russians, he later got by chance to immigrate to the US and became a self made man pursuing the American Dream, finally getting to th...more
It is about two men of two different backgrounds born in the same day, one, William, born in a golden Wasp conservative affluent family of Boston, owners of a powerful bank, the other, Wladek (Abel) a Pole, born in extreme poverty, forced to flee his homeland Poland after witnessing and suffering the atrocities of the war waged by the Russians, he later got by chance to immigrate to the US and became a self made man pursuing the American Dream, finally getting to th...more
I read Prisoner of Birth a few months ago and loved it. I couldn't put it down for two days. Not the most beautiful writing, but the man knows how to tell a story.
My mom insisted that if I liked that, I should read Kane and Abel. I really, really enjoyed it. It wasn't a straight through read in the same way that Prisoner of Birth was--I had to take breaks every once in a while. This is one of Archer's earlier novels, and I think later on he figured out how not to bore his audience. I loved the c...more
My mom insisted that if I liked that, I should read Kane and Abel. I really, really enjoyed it. It wasn't a straight through read in the same way that Prisoner of Birth was--I had to take breaks every once in a while. This is one of Archer's earlier novels, and I think later on he figured out how not to bore his audience. I loved the c...more
2 likes
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| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NOT THE GREATEST BOOK I'VE READ | 7 | 90 | Apr 30, 2013 03:21am | |
| Can anyone explain me the meaning of the last paragraph on page 155 about the trust deed???? | 1 | 28 | Mar 26, 2013 05:34am | |
| WHO WAS MORE UNLUCKY: William Kane or Abel Rosnovski? | 15 | 108 | Mar 05, 2013 10:17am | |
| Whose character do you like more : Kane or Abel ?? | 5 | 47 | Mar 05, 2013 10:13am | |
| Would you choose to be William Kane or Abel Rosnovski if you had a day to be one of them? Why? | 12 | 48 | Mar 05, 2013 10:11am | |
| Is revenge good or bad? What is the outcome of ruthless competition in the world? | 1 | 19 | Nov 07, 2012 10:05am | |
| slip of the tongue | 13 | 98 | Dec 19, 2011 09:47am |
Jeffrey Howard Archer, Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare (born 15 April 1940) is an English author and former politician.
He was a Member of Parliament and deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, and became a life peer in 1992. His political career, having suffered several controversies, ended after a conviction for perverting the course of justice and his subsequent imprisonment. He is married...more
More about Jeffrey Archer...
He was a Member of Parliament and deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, and became a life peer in 1992. His political career, having suffered several controversies, ended after a conviction for perverting the course of justice and his subsequent imprisonment. He is married...more
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Sep 09, 2012 06:22am
Please both of you do read this book out and if possible soon so that we can have a discussion upon it
Sep 13, 2012 06:36am