Kate Blackwell is one of the richest and most powerful women in the world. She is an enigma, a woman surrounded by a thousand unanswered questions.
Her father was a diamond prospector who struck it rich beyond dreams. Her mother was the daughter of a crooked Afrikaaner merchant. Her very conception was an act of hate-filled vengeance.
At the extravagant celebrations of her ninetieth birthday, there are toasts from a Supreme Court judge and a telegram from the White House.
And for Kate there are ghosts. Ghosts of absent friends and absent enemies. Ghosts from an empire spawned by naked ambition...

Registered for 'de eerste pagina zegt alles' ring and it is going to Eckleburg!

Received this as part of the "de eerste pagina zegt alles"-ring (the first page says it all-ring). I am totally surprised because I was clearly *miles* off with my guess about this book! But will definitely read this and report back. Thanks, EmEli!

I was so put off by the cover of this book that I ignored it for six years. Then one day when I had nothing to read I picked it up and soon discovered it was very hard to put down. It doesn't surprise me that this book was a number 1 bestseller. This is an accessible yet well-written, energetic drama (at times thriller) with very few lulls. It tells the story of four generations of the McGregor family and each person's story could be a book in its own right. While the McGregors are hard as nails and not very likeable, in each book there is at least one sympathetic character to keep the reader engaged. Slightly disturbing, however, were the divergent (not to say perverse) sexual preferences of some of the characters. Do they reflect the author's fantasies or does he somehow feel the need to be provocative?

Dans la bibliothèque de rue ("Des livres et vous") le long de la Scarpe, à la hauteur de Sia Habitat