Kane and Abel

Kane and Abel is the most famous book of Jeffrey Archer. It is the story about two men, who were born the same day (18 April 1906) in different places of the world. One is William Kane, American, and the other one is Wladek Koskiewicz, pole.

William was born in a very wealthy family, son of the owner of the Kane and Cabot Bank. His father was dead in his way back home to America on board the Titanic and he became fatherless. William was very smart and intelligent and he had soon the best marks in the school and university (Harvard), because he wanted to be like his father, a great banker. Although his family had plenty of money, he never asked for anything, only his weekly pocket money, one dollar every week from his grandmothers, and with this money he could always survive: he invested it in many different ways, even when he was in primary school, where he made business with stickers.
His best friend was Mathew Lester, the son of the Lester’s bank owner. William promised Mr. Lester that one day he will be in charge of his bank.
William’s mother started dating Henry Osborne, an awful man with gambling problems, who early spent all her money. She died having a miscarriage and after that, William threw Henry Osborne out and they became enemies.
William Kane achieved the position of director in the Kane and Cabot bank, in his late twenties.

In another part of the world lived Wladek Koskiewicz, son of a prostitute, who was born in the middle of the forest and he was token in a poor and simple family. All the family could see that he was different, smart and intelligent. The Baron of the castle near the village asked the family to take Wladek in his castle in order to become a friend, partner and competitor of his son Leon.
The World War started and Poland was occupied by the German. His sister Florentyna died, his friend Leon died and finally, the Baron Abel Rosnovski died, but before dying he gave Abel a wonderful bracelet made of silver with his name.
Wladek was captured and moved to Siberia, to a concentration camp, and although he had a big injury in his leg, he managed to escape with the help of the Jewish doctor of the concentration camp, a man who seemed to be 60 years old and who really was 30.
Wladek traveled to Russia and then to Turkey, almost without money, and was captured because of stealing food. He almost lost a hand, but two English men from the consulate rescued him and they heard his story. They help Wladek and gave him a boat ticket to travel to America.
During the trip he met George and Zaphia, two poles and became friends. When he arrived to the USA and told his name, he used “Abel Rosnovski”, his real father’s name.
Abel (before Wladek) started to work as a waiter in the Plaza hotel and he studied business in the evenings at Columbia University. One day Davis Leroy, the owner of a big hotel chain, met Abel and asked him to work as a manager in one of his best hotels. He did a really good job and David and he became good friends and partners.
During the Great Depression, Mr. Leroy had several money problems and he committed suicide, after giving Abel all his hotels shares and telling him that the Kane and Cabot bank didn’t want to help his chain hotel.
Abel felt very angry with this bank and blamed William Kane for that. The first time they met, was the beginning of an eternal enmity.

Abel needed money to keep all the hotels and he received help from an anonymous backer. He became a very successful business man in collaboration of Henry Osborne, now a politician with lots of influences.

Abel had a daughter with Zaphia, the pole woman, and they called her Florentyna (in memory of his dead sister).
At the same time William had a son and called him Richard, in memory of his dead father. Both sons grew up and one day they met in a big store, where Florentyna was working as a sales woman. She was working there because she wanted to get some experience in business. They didn’t know who their parents were and when they discovered that their parents were big enemies, they tried to spoke to them, but there was no way.

The fight between Kane and Abel last until Kane died. After Kane's death, Abel knew that William was the person who invested money in his bussiness during the Great Depression and felt sorry for that... he went to Kane's funeral and reconciles with his beloved daughter and son-in-law. He knew his grand son, too. Abel died soon after and left everything to Florentyna, except his silver bracelet, which left to his grand son, called William Abel Kane.