Translated into English,this means 'The Ukraine will live again".What this has to do with my post here,I'll tell you as this post goes.I have been reading 'The Devil's Alternative' by Fredrick Forsyth for nearly three months now,the extent can be explained due to the fact that i was having my college internal exams and the semester exams during this time.But,i started reading it more seriously once my exams had concluded,after May 28th that is.Today i finished it and i felt that Forsyth is one who suited my taste of books.
The story actually can not be summed up in two lines,i guess.It actually starts of with the finding of a castaway,who is later found to be an Ukranian freedom fighter by one of the important characters Andrew drake,by a ship captain.Both of them form a group of four,the other two being the freedom fighter,Kaminsky's friends from Ukraine. They together plan to make some damage to the Russian economy.Meanwhile,Russia faces famine because of a small mistake by two or three officers and badly needs some help from the West.Maxim rudin,the chief of politburo(the governing body of Russia),wants to ask the american president Mathews his help whereas his own comrade,Vishnayev wants to go to war and invade from Europe the food supplies they badly needed.Each of them have their own supporters and Rudin hangs on with his support leading 8 to 4...Somewhere else,the British agent in Russia comes to know of these secrets deep in the heart of the politburo from his youth lover,Valentina.He indirectly lets the American president know whatever he comes to know from his love.The Ukrainians succeed in their ploy of killing Yury Ivanenko,the chief of KGB,and want to make this public once the two Ukrainians who did this are safe in Israel.In another part of the world,the largest tanker ship with a capacity of 100 million tonnes of oil,the FREYA is being built.The Americans and Russians decide to sign the Treaty of Dublin so that Russia gets its badly needed food supply from America.The two killers,who still haven't made their deed public, are arrested for a flight kidnapping charge they committed in their desperation to leave Russia.Maxim rudin comes to know that these two were no ordinary killers and realizes the danger in leaving them free and decides to kill them in the jails of east berlin,were they are being held.Andrew Drake forms another group of seven and decides to do something to get the two prisoners free.He,along with his members,hijack the Freya,which is near the Dutch port to deliver its million tons of oil and makes his demands and threats.Finally,the Americans and the Europeans fail to come up with a plan while Adam Munro has something in mind.He lets the British prime minister,American president and the Politburo chief to know his plan and gets Rudin's assent.Successfully,FREYA is left unscathed and the Ukrainians are killed in their escape and no one in the whole world knew what deed they committed.The story ends with a twist relating to Valentina,which if i mentioned here will spoil the thrill to the reader.
I initially wondered how this many pieces could fit into the same story,but now i must admit,it is the thing which made me love this book.
