Kane & Abel

Historical fiction

First published: 1979
Print length: 540 pagesSimon and Schuster, 1980

Description

Born on the same day in 1906 but into radically different worlds, William Lowell Kane and Abel Rosnovski pursue parallel versions of the American dream. Kane inherits privilege and prepares for leadership in Boston banking; Abel survives war and displacement in Poland before reaching the United States and building a hotel empire. Each man’s ambition brings wealth and influence, but a disputed business decision turns their paths into a decades-long feud. Pride hardens misunderstanding into retaliation, and the conflict spreads beyond boardrooms to families who inherit consequences they did not choose. Moving across much of the twentieth century, the novel combines immigrant saga, financial rivalry, and family drama in a study of ambition’s power to create lives and consume them.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Descriptive · Dialogue-driven · Direct

Pace

Brisk

Tone

Dark · Earnest · Suspenseful · Tense

Structure

Dual timeline · Linear

Focus

Character · Plot · Relationships

Emotional intensity

4 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 2 / 5
Ideas: 3 / 5
Structure: 3 / 5
Background knowledge: 1 / 5

Themes

AmbitionClassFamilyMigration and displacementRevengeWealth

About Jeffrey Archer

Jeffrey Archer is an English novelist and former politician whose fiction joins broad historical sweep to tightly engineered popular storytelling. After serving as a Conservative MP and facing near-bankruptcy, he rebuilt his fortunes as a novelist; his books have since sold more than 320 million copies worldwide. Archer works mainly through direct, dialogue-driven prose, strong plotting, parallel lives, reversals of fortune, and sustained rivalries. Kane & Abel establishes a characteristic scale, setting two ambitious men from radically different backgrounds on converging paths through banking, immigration, and business. Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less shows his lighter, more intricate side, turning financial deception into a comic revenge scheme, while Shall We Tell the President? applies the same narrative efficiency to political suspense. The Clifton novels extend his interest in family inheritance, social mobility, concealed identity, and the pressures of twentieth-century history. Archer has described a laborious process of repeated revision, but the finished books aim for speed and clarity: expansive stories built around ambition, power, loyalty, and consequence.

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Language: English
ISBN: 9780671251215

Keep your books and notes in Collected for iPhone.

Apple Books is a service mark of Apple Inc. iPhone is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.