Power of the Sword, by Wilbur Smith

Power of the Sword is a rich and thrilling adventure, a magnificent feat of storytelling that sweeps the reader from the deserts, mountains and cities of Africa to the heartland of Nazi Germany, and from the turmoil of the Depression years into the white heat of war.

A novel of life-long love and hate, of courage and revenge, Power of the Sword is the story of two half-brothers – the sons of Centaine de Thiry Courtney – caught up in the tumult of their nation's history through almost two decades.

Blood enemies from their first boyhood encounter, Manfred De La Rey and Shasa Courtney find themselves adversaries in a war of age-old savagery to seize the sword of power in their land.

Moving from the teeming goldfields of the Highveld to the secret citadels of Afrikaner power, from the ringing Olympic stadia of Berlin in 1936 to the raging skies over the Abyssinian hills, Power of the Sword is epic fiction rooted in documentary fact-a majestic entertainment by a master of his craft.