It is June 1941, and the war is not going well for England. Somehow, the Germans are anticipating the RAF's flight paths and shooting down British bombers with impunity. Meanwhile, across the North Sea, eighteen-year-old Harald Olufsen takes a shortcut on the German-occupied Danish island of Sande and discovers an astonishing sight. He doesn't know what it is, but he knows he must tell someone. And when he learns the truth, it will fall upon him to deliver word to England--except that he has no way to get there. He has only an old derelict Hornet Moth biplane rusting away in a ruined church--a plane so decrepit that it is unlikely to ever get off the ground . . . even if Harald knew how to fly it.

Ken Follett is one of the world's best-loved authors, selling more than 160 million copies of his thirty 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 the author's most successful novel. It reached number one on bestseller lists around the world and was an Oprah's Book Club pick.

Its sequel, World Without End, proved equally popular, and the Kingsbridge series has sold 38 million copies worldwide. The third book, A Column of Fire, will be published by Viking in Fall 2017.

Follett lives in Hertfordshire, England, with his wife Barbara. Between them they have five children, six grandchildren, and three Labradors.