Epic read about WO1

Part one of The Century Trilogy. In which you follow five families in England, Russia and America up to WW1 and beyond. The individuals are placed in the centre of the worlds political and historical events and their richly described characters makes them human, as does their love-life. Follett also tells the tale of working class people down a mine pit or in a factory. He addresses the struggle for women’s rights and gives insides in the Russian Revolution. You tend to forget it’s a novel, it feels like it’s real. The research is done very well. Most of the time the characters tell each other what is happening in the world. A trick that becomes a little too obvious after some time. On the other hand: because of this way of telling the story, the book reads like a train (to use a good Dutch expression). And for an 850 pages read, that is what you want. Nowadays classic.