The last sentence was a real shocker. It blew my mind.

We have all wondered at some point in life, how our lives would have turned out if we had taken a different route, made a different choice. What and if, two innocent words that togther have the power to haunt us for the rest of our lives. This story is about those What ifs.

"All of us can point to a moment in our lives when something happens that causes us to go in a totally different direction. It can be as simple as that time you stepped onto a train and decided to sit next to me."

The story begins with Alexendar Karpenko - a child prodigy - and his mother dealing with the after math of his father's murder. As the events unfold they figure out that the most powerful people in communist Russia are behind the murder of Alexander's father, who was killed for trying to establish a trade union. Alexander and his mother decides to escape Russia and seek refuge elsewhere. This brings them to a life altering crossroad that will define the rest of their lives.

They are given two choices, they can either hop on to a cargo ship headed to America or a cargo ship headed to England. They leave their fate to a coin toss.

At this point the concept of parallel or alternate lives come into play, we are given a version of how their lives would turn out both in American and in England. We stay unsure, however, as to which life is really happening and which one is just an alternate version of it. We switch back and forth between America and England and see Alexander and her mother struggling to create a life for themselves and wondering what there life would have been like if they had chosen a different cargo ship.

It was an enjoyable read. The concept was very unique and original. However, i think it could have been executed better.

Alexander and his mom faced several ordeals over the period of 30 years, but most of their predicaments got resolved before they could become a real challenge or a threat. However, the ending did a decent job, if not the best, of tying all the loose ends together. Another problem I had was with the characters as there were some great characters that disappeared in the middle of the book only to return in the very end. It felt like the author didn't know what to do with these characters and their stories. I also think some parts could have been edited out as they served little to no purpose in the progression of the plot.

With that being said I still really enjoyed the book, despite its shortcomings. The writing had me totally engrossed in the story and the last sentence felt like a punch in the gut. Characters were well written and I loved the relationship Alexander and his mother shared.

Jeffrey Archer is a great story teller and I am eager to read more of his work.