肯大师这部作品写得非常精彩。他写活了在18世纪工业革命曙光之初，苏格兰矿工的生活，伦敦工人阶层抗争的雏型，以及美国革命开始时，北美殖民地种植园的生活和气氛。这些主题都是肯大师最熟悉，写得最好的。他对男女主角热爱自由，与腐朽贪婪的贵族阶层抗争写得生动、强烈，从个人的角度反应了美国独立战争的主题——争取自由。

当然，这本书肯大师还是没有忘记自己的流量密码，对性行为的描写已经达到了 Pornhub 的级别。

Why did I read this book, give it a 5-star rating, and put it on my “Favorites” shelf list?

First, it is a Ken Follett material; I believe his only mission in life is to sway people into loving anything he writes— I say this because it has certainly worked for me. Second, the story is set in a former era—the late 18th century—and I am such a fan of period/historical reads. Third, it talks about a young man’s struggle against social injustices, a subject to which I am largely sympathetic (having worked closely with peasant farmers and workers during my time as a student activist). Lastly, the book’s hero, Malachi “Mack” McAsh, hails from Scotland, and I devoured anything Scottish during the time I was reading this novel.

A combination of all four reasons gives me a story that is both compelling and worth reading.

The story starts with Mack wanting to be free from the chains that bind him to coal mining slavery and getting severely punished for it. Sick of a life of servitude, he escapes to London in the hope of a better life and witnesses the same sordid condition of the workers and poor people in general. He finds work as a coal heaver and later leads a gang of workers. He also organizes his gang to assert better working conditions and acceptable wages for themselves, but authorities view it as subversive and soon they fabricated charges against him. He is arrested, found ‘guilty’ of fomenting a riot (an offense punishable by death), and sent to a tobacco plantation in Virginia as an indentured servant, which at the time was a convenient replacement for the gallows. There, he is reunited with Scottish noblewoman Lizzie Hallim, a childhood acquaintance struggling with the restrictions of her own privileged life. Their friendship turns to love, and in the end, they decide to finally take hold of the freedom that has eluded them throughout the years and create a life together.

Ken Follett said that he never saw this book as political, but I can’t seem to separate the political tone of the story from the satisfaction of just writing about inequality and seeking out justice. For me, Mack is an outward representation of the progressive labor sector that continues to decry the existence of repressive trade laws, of people who don’t get properly compensated for long hours of hard work, or of the hazardous conditions of most blue-collar workplaces. I am reminded of the countless faces asserting their rights to live human, and of the countless more still bound in their chains, unable to speak out and unable to break free.

It is difficult to live with the kind of choices Mack has made especially when he almost died for it, but for him, it meant his freedom, and being able to make that one shot at redemption is better than doing nothing at all to rid himself of his chains.

Bei manchen Büchern, weiß man schon nach den ersten Seiten, wie sie ablaufen und enden. Bei diesem hier weiß man es schon nach dem Lesen der kurzen Inhaltsangabe auf dem Rücken des Buches. Und das hat mich doch etwas überrascht, handelt es sich doch bei Ken Follett um einen der bekannteren Autoren historischer Romane. Bestseller sind nicht gleich gute Literatur, schon klar, aber was hier geboten wird, ist katastrophal. Die Geschichte ist flach, die Personen eindimensional, die guten sind edelmütig bis zum Schluß und die schlechten Menschen kriegen ihre gerechte Strafe. Damit nicht genug, es pilchert mächtig. Das ist ein historischer LIEBESroman, und dabei ist das historische Zeug nur schmückendes Beiwerk. So eine richtige Schnulzenschwarte.

Un libro, como todos los de Ken Follet, entretenido, que engancha y bien escrito. Genial para pasar un buen rato pero no estaría entre mis preferidos del autor, por eso 4

Follett has a formula that works! From "Pillars of the Earth" to his Earth at War series, his characters struggle with Bad and Good, Right and Wrong. This story is no different. Like watching the best of a mini-series, you get caught up in the story and cheer for the good guys to beat the bad ones. Taking place in Colonial times we follow a large cast of entertaining characters from the coal mines of Scotland to the plantations of Virginia. All the while, you're predicting the outcomes well in advance and turning pages faster and faster in order to prove you're right.

This very interesting novel should be required reading in social and economic history courses, and for anybody interested in labor and immigration history. Follett gives us the story or Mack McAsh, a coal mining serf from 18th century Scotland. He eventually escapes to London, where he works on the docks unloading the coal ships from Scotland and northern England, and where he gets caught up in labor conflict and social unrest and is imprisoned. His punishment is to be transported to America where he works as an indentured servant on a plantation in Virgina. He escapes in the end to the wilderness of the backcountry after being improbably reunited with his lost love from Scotland.

Comprehensively Amazing ! !

3.5 stars - It was really good.

I didn't even notice until I sat down to write this review, that I did not make any highlights in this novel. While Follett may not have a literary flair that makes me highlight beautiful passages, this story grabbed my attention from the beginning and kept me captivated until the end. I thoroughly enjoyed the storytelling within this novel and learned a great deal about the atrocious coal mining work environment in Scotland during the mid 1700s. It was also rather refreshing to have a heroine that was feisty and independent without her having to be a fighting warrior bad ass to prove it.

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Favorite Quote: N/A

First Sentence: Snow crowned the ridges of High Glen and lay on the wooded slopes in pearly patches, like jewelry on the bosom of a green silk dress.

4.5

Un libro entretenido, si este me gustó y no es su mejor libro, no me quiero imaginar cómo estará los pilares de la tierra.

Ken Follett não desiludi. Adorei!

"Pensa: vivere dove vuoi, non dove te lo ordinano. Scegliere il lavoro, essere libero di andartene e di accettarne un altro pagato meglio, o meno pericoloso, o più pulito. Essere padrone di te stesso e non schiavo di qualcuno… non sarebbe magnifico?".
Un luogo chiamato libertà è uno spettacolare libro del 1995 di Ken Follett che parla di amore, coraggio, libertà e determinazione… tutti elementi splendidamente incastonati in un contesto storico davvero esistito: quello delle miniere di carbone inglesi e delle colonie americane della seconda metà del 1700, l'epoca in cui la vita di un minatore e di uno schiavo valevano meno di uno straccio.
Il romanzo, pur avendo in Mack MacAsh il protagonista assoluto, può benissimo esser visto come un racconto corale: infatti, mentre leggeremo le peripezie di Mack verso la sua voglia di libertà (poveraccio, ne passerà davvero di tutti i colori), seguiremo anche le sorti di Lizzie Hallim (donna libera ed emancipata, che non accetta la vita che il destino gli ha tracciato) e di tutta la famiglia Jamisson, con padre e figli uno più odioso dell'altro. E da questo si capisce benissimo che la tormentata storia d'amore tra Mack e Lizzie è solo il pretesto per affrontare l'argomento degli scontri tra conservatori e liberali inglesi e delle primissime ribellioni nelle colonie d'Oltreoceano.
La trama, con le tante storie secondarie che scorrono parallelamente alla vicende di Mack, è davvero ben costruita e si lascia leggere in maniera fluida; ogni volta che dovevo staccarmi dalla sua lettura facevo davvero molta fatica. Consigliato agli amanti dell'avventura (e qui, cari amici lettori, c'è né davvero tanta) ed a tutti coloro che vogliono capire cosa siano state le lotte di classe e di libertà.
[https://lastanzadiantonio.blogspot.co...]

3.25