Kane and Abel : Novel and TV mini-series

One more of my posts on an adaptation of my favorite novel. Jeffrey Archer is one of the best authors the world has ever seen. The stories he writes are something which are only exclusive to him. There is no one in the world to match his unique style. One of my favorite books by him is Kane and Abel.
The novel revolves around the life of two men, William Kane and Abel Rosnovski.

The two men have nothing in common except that they are born on the same day in the early 19th century and they both want to succeed. William is born in the United States while Abel is born as Wladek Koskiewicz in Poland under great poverty and hardships. William is inspired by his father, chairman of Kane and Cabot Bank and plans to be a great banker someday. Whereas Abel under poverty struggles to find a living and education.

The First World War changes Abel's life and after an invasion of Germans and Russians into Poland, Abel has no option but to flee. He goes to a numerous places before getting an opportunity to go in the United States. There he starts his struggle to survive taking up odd jobs before becoming a waiter. His journey from being a waiter to manager of a hotel and being an owner of large chain of hotels is depicted in a great and inspiring way.

While Abel makes his life in Poland and escapes to United States, William is no less. He is extraordinarily intelligent in mathematics and has deep rooted sense of right business tactics. He grows up enduring his father tragic death in The Titanic, studies hard to get into Harvard. Life is not easy for him too, his mother remarries another man, Henry Osborne(David Osborne in the TV series) who turns out to be a gold digger and just exploits his mother's wealth. His mother too dies shortly after period of tensions and mental frustrations. William after completing his education gets on the board of his father's great bank with his genius and plans one day to be the chairman just like his father was.

The stories of these two great men go parallel until one day when Abel, the manager of a big group of hotels has to deal with Kane, one of the directors of bank regarding the loans of Abel's employer, David Leroy. Kane appears as expected of him(in a professional way) which angers Abel. Also during this Leroy commits suicide which triggers Abel's anger towards Kane to a great extent. Abel wows to destroy Kane and thus a great rivalry starts. Each one leaves no stone unturned in destroying each other and fight for the next three decades of their lives.

The book and the TV miniseries (of 3 episodes) based on the book shows us this great story well. A story spanning for 6 decades(right from birth till the end of the men) is something everyone should see, enjoy and feel.