Never

**New York Times Bestseller

The new must-read epic from master storyteller Ken Follett: more than a thriller, it s an action-packed, globe-spanning drama set in the present day.

A compelling story, and only too realistic. Lawrence H. Summers, former U.S. Treasury Secretary

Every catastrophe begins with a little problem that doesn t get fixed. So says Pauline Green, president of the United States, in Follett s nerve-racking drama of international tension.

A shrinking oasis in the Sahara Desert; a stolen US Army drone; an uninhabited Japanese island; and one country s secret stash of deadly chemical poisons: all these play roles in a relentlessly escalating crisis.

Struggling to prevent the outbreak of world war are a young woman intelligence officer; a spy working undercover with jihadists; a brilliant Chinese spymaster; and Pauline herself, beleaguered by a populist rival for the next president election.

Never is an extraordinary novel, full of heroines and villains, false prophets and elite warriors, jaded politicians and opportunistic revolutionaries. It brims with cautionary wisdom for our times, and delivers a visceral, heart-pounding read that transports readers to the brink of the unimaginable.

"Urgent and fiercely compelling . . . Never is first-rate entertainment that has something important to say. It deserves the popular success it will almost certainly achieve."
*—The Washington Post

"Ken Follett can't write a bad book, and *Never is his best. It's terrifying. I defy anyone to put it down once the last 150 pages are reached."
*—*Stephen King, via Twitter

"Superstar novelist Ken Follett’s what-if political thriller . . . is so exciting—and so plausible—you won’t want to look away."
*—*Apple Books (Best Book of the Month)

"Settle in for a thrilling ride."
*—*CNN.com 

"Terrific . . . A powerful, commanding performance from one of the top writers in the genre."
—Publishers Weekly (starred)

"A complex, scary thriller that feels too plausible for comfort. You’ll be so absorbed in the story threads that you’ll follow them anywhere—and you’ll suddenly realize you’ve read hundreds of pages. . . . On one level, it’s great entertainment; on another, a window into a sobering possibility."
—Kirkus (starred)

"Absolutely compelling . . . A smart, scary, and all-too-plausible thriller."
—Booklist

Autorentext
Ken Follett is one of the world's best-loved authors, selling more than 170 million copies of his thirty-two books. Follett's first bestseller was Eye of the Needle, a spy story set in the Second World War. In 1989, The Pillars of the Earth was published and has since become Follett's most popular novel. It reached number one on bestseller lists around the world and was an Oprah's Book Club pick. Its sequels, World Without End and A Column of Fire, proved equally popular, and the Kingsbridge series has sold more than forty million copies worldwide. Follett lives in Hertfordshire, England, with his wife, Barbara. Between them they have five children, six grandchildren, and two Labradors.

Klappentext

The new must-read epic from master writer Ken Follett: an action-packed, globe-spanning spy thriller about brinkmanship, impossible decisions, and the unforeseen consequences that could lead to the next world war

"When I was doing the research for Fall of Giants I was shocked to realize that the First World War was a war that nobody wanted. No European leader on either side intended it to happen. But the 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 that it was all a tragic accident.

And I wondered: Could that happen again?"-Ken Follett

In the Sahara Desert, two elite intelligence agents are on the trail of a powerful group of drug-smuggling terrorists, risking their lives-and, when they fall desperately in love, their careers-at every turn. Nearby, a beautiful young widow fights against human traffickers while traveling illegally to Europe with the help of a mysterious man who may not be who he says he is.

In China, a senior government official with vast ambitions for himself and his country battles against the older Communist hawks in the government, who may be pushing China-and its close military ally, North Korea-to a place of no return.

And in the United States, Pauline Green, the country's first woman president, navigates terrorist attacks, illegal arms trading, and the smear campaigns of her blustering political opponent with careful and deft diplomacy. She will do everything in her power to avoid starting an unnecessary war. But when one act of aggression leads to another, the most powerful countries in the world are caught in a complex web of alliances they can't escape. And once all the sinister pieces are in place, can anyone-even those with the best of intentions and most elite skills-stop the inevitable?

Never is an extraordinary thriller, full of heroines and villains, false prophets and elite warriors, jaded politicians and opportunistic revolutionaries. It brims with cautionary wisdom for our times, and delivers a visceral, heart-pounding read that transports readers to the brink of the unimaginable.

Story Locale: Chad, China, North Korea, America (Washington DC)

Zusammenfassung
**New York Times Bestseller

The new must-read epic from master storyteller Ken Follett: more than a thriller, it’s an action-packed, globe-spanning drama set in the present day.
 
“A compelling story, and only too realistic.” —Lawrence H. Summers, former U.S. Treasury Secretary

“Every catastrophe begins with a little problem that doesn’t get fixed.” So says Pauline Green, president of the United States, in Follett’s nerve-racking drama of international tension.
 
A shrinking oasis in the Sahara Desert; a stolen US Army drone; an uninhabited Japanese island; and one country’s secret stash of deadly chemical poisons: all these play roles in a relentlessly escalating crisis.
 
Struggling to prevent the outbreak of world war are a young woman intelligence officer; a spy working undercover with jihadists; a brilliant Chinese spymaster; and Pauline herself, beleaguered by a populist rival for the next president election.

Never is an extraordinary novel, full of heroines and villains, false prophets and elite warriors, jaded politicians and opportunistic revolutionaries. It brims with cautionary wisdom for our times, and delivers a visceral, heart-pounding read that transports readers to the brink of the unimaginable.

Leseprobe

Chapter 1

 

Seen from a plane, the car would have looked like a slow beetle creeping across an endless beach, the sun glinting off its polished black armor. In fact it was doing thirty miles per hour, the maximum safe speed on a road that had unexpected potholes and cracks. No one wanted to get a flat tire in the Sahara Desert.

 

The road led north from N'Djamena, capital city of Chad, through the desert toward Lake Chad, the biggest oasis in the Sahara. The landscape was a long, flat vista of sand and rock with a few pale yellow dried-up bushes and a random scatter of large and small stones, everything the same shade of mid-tan, as bleak as a moonscape.

 

The desert was unnervingly like outer space, Tamara Levit thought, with the car as a rocket ship. If anything went wrong with her space suit she could die. The comparison was fanciful and made her smile. All the same she glanced into the back of the car, where there were two reassuring…