The book starts out in Germany in 1961, where
Rebecca Hoffmann finds herself manipulated by her husband, a Stasi (unofficial name for the secret police) officer. Hans married her just to spy on her and it was the orders of the Stasi. She
was at the wrong side of the Berlin Wall. The Communism and American troops
living in a shaky cohabitation of Germany of the Cold War.
The 1112-page bestseller is book three of the Century Trilogy published
by Signet (Penguin Group) International edition, an imprint of New American
Library, New York in July 2015. The author is a British novelist. However,
there are too many names mentioned in the book that I had difficult time
remembering who was who. Overall, it is interesting, entertaining, informative and
inspiring.
The author brings numerous big names in
history into fiction characters such as: JFK, Nikita Khrushchev, RFK, Martin Luther
King, and Mikhail Gorbachev. In Moscow Dimka is an aide to First Secretary Khurschev;
in USA George Jakes Peskhov is an aide to Bobby Kennedy and also having some conversations to Martin Luther King.
I found myself more enjoyable at Berlin
and Moscow part. Dimka’s character is memorable one though he is not a hero. There
is no specific antagonist in the story, most of characters are the victim of
the regime. Like the Franks in East Berlin are the victim of the East Germany
regime and Dimka’s family (his twin Tanya and Lev Peshkov) and Vasili in Moscow also have the
same struggling, the Communism. Meanwhile George Jakes, a young black American,
was a freedom fighter. A white American, Alan Shepard, can orbit the earth, but
a black American can’t enter a restroom. At the end of the book, everyone is
happy. The Berlin Wall has fallen, the Iron Curtain has torn down, and Obama
has won the election.
Edge
of Eternity (2014), a Novel by Ken Follett: summary
The
Franks, Berlin in 1961
East Germany was a Communist tyranny now,
and Rebecca saw no point in engaging in politics. So she channeled her idealism
into teaching, and hoped that the next generation would be less dogmatic, more
compassionate, smarter. Her subject was Russian, but she also had to teach an
English class. She did not speak English, though she had picked up a smattering
from her British grandmother, Maud, still feisty at seventy.
The school was desperately short of
teachers because half the staff had emigrated to West Germany, where salaries
were higher and people were free. The story was the same in most schools in
East Germany. And it was not just teachers. Doctors could double their earning
by moving west. Bern Held was probably Rebecca’s best friend outside her
family. He was a slim, dark-haired man of forty, with a livid scar he got while
he was at war. He taught physics and a divorced man with no children.
Rebecca’s father, Werner, had a factory
making television sets. But her mother was determined to stay in the East. The
house they lived in had been in her family for generations. Her mother Carla,
was well-known Social Democrat. Her grandmother, Maud, was the sister of an
English Earl. Rebecca was adopted, her real parents were killed at the end of
the war. She got the letter from a Stasi official, and it ordered her to
present herself at the headquarter office for questioning. Everyone knew about
the letters and everyone dreaded receiving one. Her family was deeply suspect.
After the interrogating, she just found her husband was a Stasi man.
Her husband had been marrying her in
order to spy her and her family. The deception worked too well. She was in
rage. Her twelve-year old sister was doing her homework while she got home. She
could hear the grand piano in drawing room. Her brother, Walli, was playing a
blues.
George
Jakes in Maryland
He was about to graduate from Harvard Law
School. Now he has was here at his mother’s modest suburban home in Prince
George’s County, Maryland, outside Washington, DC. Jacky Jakes had never been
actress. Her career had ended up before it began when, at age of sixteen, she
had become pregnant with George. She had gained that careworn face raising him
alone for first six years of his life, working as a waitress and living in a
tiny house at the back of Union Station, and drilling him in the need for hard
work and education and respectability. George and her mother had shared books.
Her father had been a literature professor at a Negro college, and she had been
a reader from childhood.
Senator Greg Peshkov, George’s father,
had got him a vacation job as a law clerk at the firm, and as they both had
hoped, the temporary post had led to the offer of a full-time job after
graduation. He knew she was at the University of Chicago Law School, and like
him was about to graduate. He had met her a couple of times before he liked
her. They met her in a bus, when the Freedom Riders stroke.
Walli’s sister, Lili, was almost three
years younger. After the war, when their parents had been desperately working
hours to feed the family, Rebecca had often been left in charge of Walli and
Lili. She was like a second mother. And every school in East Germany is short
of teachers, because so many have moved to the West.
East Berliners who worked in the West
for higher wages paid in valuable deutschmarks. Walli’s father was a Grenzganger, though he worked for
profits, not wages. Walli himself crossed over at least once a week, usually to
go with his friends to West Berlin cinemas, which showed sexy, violent American
films that were more exciting than the preachy fables in Communist fables in
Communist movie houses.
In practice the Vopos (East Germany
Cops) stopped anyone who caught their eye. Entire families crossing together,
parents, and children, were almost certain to be challenged on suspicion of
trying to leave the East permanently, especially if they had luggage. He made
crossing for singing contest this time. While he was waiting his turn, getting
impatient, he was approached by a pretty girl. She was going to enter the
contest with his brother playing guitar.
Maryland,
USA
Martin Luther King was head of Southern
Christian Leadership Conference, one of the more important civil rights group. He
was one of the options to George, but he preferred Bobby Kennedy for his
career. Maria Summers was very smart. George was half in love with her. He was
desperate for opportunity to be alone with her, but the people in whose homes
the Freedom Riders stayed was solid, respectable black citizens, many of them
devout Christians, who would not have allowed their guest rooms to be used for
smooching. The Riders were served politely in the white restaurants while the
rally was. But George felt sure that as they left each town the signs would
return; and the Freedom Ride would have been a waste of time.
On the fifth day of the Ride one of
their number had been jailed for insisting on his right to a shoeshine. The
Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had been the first man in space, less than a
month ago. Alan Shepard was the first American in space. A white American can
orbit the earth, but a black American can’t enter a restroom.
Moscow
It was summer in Moscow, Tanya just
arrived in time from Yakutsk, Siberia. She shared a flat with her mother, Anya,
and twin brother, Dmitri, always called Dimka. They lived at a Government
House, an apartment building for Moscow’s privileged elite. Tanya’s mother said
it was spacious only by Soviet standards: the Berlin apartment she had lived in
as a child, when Grandfather Grigori had been a diplomat, had been much more grand.
She worked for TASS, the Soviet news agency. She was a rising star, able to
produce lively and interesting articles. Her late father had been a colonel in
the KGB, the secret police; and her uncle Volodya was a general in Red Army
Intelligence.
Tanya admired him for a completely
different set of reasons: because he was bright, brave, and a world-class
writer. Vasili was thirty but he liked girls. He worked as a radio script
editor and was a naturally untidy man. Vasili and Tanya worked together
produced an illegal news sheet called Dissidence.
They reported on censorship, demonstration, trials, and political prisoners.
Dimka was an aid to Nikita Khrushchev,
first secretary and chairman of the Presidium, but all he felt he should not be
here. General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev was a reformer. His program included
a limited degree of cultural tolerance, and so far no action had been taken against
the poetry reading. Khrushchev’s hold on power was not strong. He was a
Communist heart and soul, but he was also a reformer who saw failings in the
Soviet system and wanted to implement new ideas. But the old Stalinist and
Kremlin were not yet defeated. They were alert for any opportunity to weaken
Khrushchev and rolled back his reforms.
The recent report said American
President, JFK, had authorized a crackpot CIA plan for an invasion in Cuba at a
place called the Bay Pigs. Khrushchev had failed to achieve the main foreign
policy objective: a permanent resolution of the Berlin situation. East Germany
was their frontier post in Europe. Its border secure the border of Poland and Czechoslovakia.
Busy on Cuba issue, the first secretary was concerned about the arrest of
leading Tanya Dvorkin and Vasili Yenkov. Dimka’s
father was in KGB, died last year. His grandfather Grigori Peskhov in the
October Revolution, his uncle, Vladimir (Vollodya) Peshkov, was a general.
George
Jakes in USA
Verena Marquand was graduating from
English Department. However, there were a few people of color at Harvard that
all knew one another. She was an ardent civil rights campaigner, and was going
to work for Martin Luther King in Atlanta after graduation. Her parents were a
tall, well-dressed black man and a white woman with an elaborate blond
coiffure. Percy Marquand, was famous movie
star. Babe Lee was a theater actress.
George’s grandparents were Russian
immigrants. His grandfather, Lev Peshkov, had started out running bars and
nightclubs, and now owned a Hollywood studio. People said he was a ruthless
businessman with little respect for the law. On the other hand, he had been
kind to his black grandson, giving him a generous allowance as well as paying
his tuition. Lev Peshkov was widely believed to have been a criminal himself, a
bootlegger in days of Prohibition. George’s grandmother, Marga was his second
wife. He also had a wife, Olga, in Buffalo, and a daughter, Daisy, who was
married to an Englishman and lived in London. So George had English cousins he
had never met.
Washington
DC
George was trying to forget Maria
Summers. He was dating a girl, a history graduate who worked as a secretary in
at National Museum of American History. She was attractive and intelligent, but
it was not working: he still thought about Maria all the time. Perhaps Verena
might be more effective cure. The Department of Justice was housed in a grand
classical building across the street from the White House. His mother recalled
him: there were a thousand smart young men willing to work for Martin Luther King.
But there was only one Negro sitting in the office next to Bobby Kennedy. George
had seen only one interracial couple in the ballroom: Percy Marquand and Babe
Lee.
Rebecca
in East Berlin
She was under investigation as a social
parasite. Her friend from school named Bernd Held, was under investigation for
ideological unreliability. After a year of fake marriage it was good to know
that someone genuinely found her desirable, even lovable. The East German
regime had done what everyone said could not be done: they had built a wall
across the middle of Berlin. Rebecca was on the wrong side.
Washington
DC in 1961-1962
The East German regime was close to
collapse. George was thrilled to find Maria Summers was originally turned down
for a job in the White House. Her grandfather was a preacher. Maria’s father
had gone to a Negro college and law school. In 1930, in the Depression, he had
opened a storefront law firm in the South Side neighborhood, where no one could
afford a postage, stamp. His clients had paid him in kind: homemade cakes, eggs
from their backyard hens, a free haircut, some carpentry around his office.
Maria knew her mother would disapprove of her daughter going swim with married
man if he were anyone other than the president.
The Bureau had important information
about Martin Luther King. The FBI director J. Edgar Hoover hated Martin Luther
King. Not a single FBI agent was black. He also hated Bobby Kennedy. George
dropped at the FBI headquarter. The office was on another floor of the Justice
Department building. Dr. King sometimes
telephones a New York attorney and got advice on tax and publishing matters
from a Communist.
Maria
Summers
She still called him Mr. President most
of the time. She loved him. Maria had learned not to torture herself with
thoughts of her lover’s wife. Maria knew she was cruelly betraying a decent
woman, and it grieved her, so she did not think about it. President’s wife was
out of town again.
Dr.
King
Martin Luther King was a handsome man of
thirty-three, with a mustache and prematurely receding black hair. King and
George had met before on the Freedom Right. King explained Stanley Levison was
not a Communist. On the other hand, if it was bad news George wanted to hear
first. Perhaps the FBI had caught King out in an extramarital affair, or
something that kind.
The audience and consisted of sanitation
workers and their family and their supporters. Looking their worn shoes and
their old coats and hats, Jasper Murray, the journalist, realized that there
were some of the poorest people in America. They were ill-educated and they did
dirty jobs and they lived in the city that called them second-class citizens,
nigras, boys. But they had the spirit, they believed in a better life. They had
a dream.
King’s voice shook with feeling, and
Jasper recalled from that in the Bible, Moses had never reached Canaan. He
encouraged his audience they would get to the Promised Land. The next day, at the end of afternoon Jasper
would try to arrange interview with King. Jasper had once already interview
with King on the speech ‘I have a dream’ speech, when he was a student in 1963.
Jasper spotted the white Cadillac that he knew, was loaned to King, along with a
chauffeur, by a black-owned Memphis funeral home. King was tucking his shirt
in, as if dressing after a shower. He was probably getting ready to go out for dinner,
Jasper thought.
A shot rang out. King staggered back,
threw up his arms like a man on a cross, hit the wall behind him, and fell.
King’s aides took cover around the white Cadillac. Then there was no second
shot. He had no hope. That night, the inner cities of the United States
exploded. There were riots in one hundred ten cities. In Washington, twenty
thousand people overwhelmed the police and set fire to the buildings.
The
Williams and the Dewars in London
Dave’s father, Lloyd Williams was an M.
P. Dave Williams was thirteen years old. Ursula Dewar, known as Beep, was also
thirteen, but she seemed older than Dave.
His mother, Daisy, was an American. Dave’s grandmother’s, Eth Leckwith,
was to be introduced to the House of Lords. The two families, Dewar and
Williams, were assembling in the hall. Woody Dewar was a photographer on a one
year assignment in London, had brought his wife, and his children, Cameron and
Beep. All American seemed fascinated by the pantomime of British public life,
so Dewars were joining the celebration.
Young family friend Jasper Murray was
there too. He was eighteen and a Viking, tall and broad with blond hair.
Jasper’s mother, had been refugee from Nazi Germany, and Dave’s mother, Daisy,
had taken her in, with characteristic generosity. Jasper studied French and
German in one of the larger colleges of London University. He wrote for the
student newspaper and wanted to be a journalist.
Cameron Dewar was fifteen years old and
in love for the first time. Evie never give attention to him. She was in love
with Jasper Murray. Evie Williams was the center of attention, she was the star
of the evening. She was good actor on the stage.
Rebecca
and Bernd in West Berlin
They had living together three months in
the old town house in Berlin. Hans Hoffman did not want to be divorced, he
wanted to start again. Rebecca and Bernd escaped to West Berlin, they almost
got caught. Bernd fell like a stone to get West Germany. Three days later Bern
opened his eyes, he had undergone several operation. He was now a teacher in a
wheelchair.
Dimka
He met a woman named Nina. Dimka spent
most weekends with her. Dimka’s mother, Anya, wanted to meet Nina. He felt
disloyal to Nina when he admired Natalya Smotrov. Natalya was a married woman
who worked for the Defense Ministry. The Defense Ministry was so slow in
sending arms to Soviet’s comrades in Cuba. In fact, Cuba was the only
revolutionary state in the American continent. It was proof that Marxism
applied all over the world, not just in the East. Communism was supposed to be
joyous crusade to make better world. Sometimes the Soviet Union was more like a
medieval monastery where everyone had taken vows of poverty and obedience.
Nikita Khrushchev shipped the missiles
secretly. They put them in boxes labelled ‘drainage pipes’. Even the ships’s
captains would not know what was inside. Khrushchev signed Dimka in charge in
the project. So far, Dimka’s strategy was working. It seemed no one suspected
what the Soviet Union was up to in Cuba.
President JFK already knew Khrushchev
deployed nuclear missiles in Cuba. If one missile landed on a medium-size
American city, six hundred thousand people would die. In 1968, news also came
from Vietnam. At a road junction in Saigon a Buddhist monk called Thich Quang
Duc, doused in five gallons of gasoline, had calmly struck a match and set him
alight. His suicide was a protest at the persecution of the Buddhist majority
by the American-sponsored President Ngo Dinh Diem, who was a Catholic. There
was no end to the travails of President Kennedy.
Tanya had a suspicion, never voiced,
that Nina had manipulated Dimka into the marriage. The Dvorkins were an elite
family, and Nina was ambitious.
Vasili Yenkov was script editor and
sentenced two years in labor camp for possessing a leaflet about Ustin Bodian,
the dissident singer. Vasili was an electrician in a power station in Siberia.
Dimka
in Vietnam, 1965
Dimka Dvorkin flew to Vietnam in 1965
along with large group of Foreign Ministry official and aides including Natalya
Smotrov. It was his first trip outside the Soviet Union. But he was even more excited
about being with Natalya. They were far away from Moscow, out of range his wife
and Natalya’s husband. Dimka was feeling more optimistic in general. Kosygin,
his boss since the fall of Nikita Khrushchev, understood that the Soviet Union
was losing the Cold War because of its economy. Soviet industry was
inefficient, and Soviet citizens were poor. Kosygin’s aim was to make the USSR more
productive. They had to compete with the Americans in prosperity, not just in
tanks and missiles.
Part of economic problem was that so much
of the national income was spent on the military. In hope of reducing this
crippling expense, Khrushchev had come up with the policy of peaceful coexistence,
living side by side with the capitalist without fighting wars. Khrushchev had
done much implement the idea: his quarrels in Berlin and Cuba had required more
military expenditure, not less.
Hanoi was the ancient capital of ancient
country, long oppressed by foreigners, first the Chinese, the French, then the Americans.
Vietnam was more crowded and was also split in two.
Vietnam leader Ho Chi Minh had defeated
France in anticolonial war of fifties. Americans refused to accept his
authority, he was undemocratic Communist. The unelected Saigon regime was
tyrannical and unpopular, and under attack by resistance fighters called
Vietcong. The South Vietnamese army was so weak in 1965, it had to be propped
up by twenty three thousand Am
erican troops.
The Americans were pretending that South
Vietnam was a separate country, just as the Soviet Union pretended that East
Germany was a country. To Dimka, Vietnam was a mirror image of Germany.
Moscow
Konstantin Chernenko died in Moscow.
Dimka and Natalya, were at home, eating bean forsupper with thei daughter,
Katya, a schoolgirl of fifteen, and Dimka’s son , Grisha, a university student
of twenty one. Chernenko was dead. He suffered from cirrhosis and emphysema.
All Moscow was waiting impatiently for him to expire. The succession will be
decided in the next few hours, Dimka said to his wife Natalya, they have to
act.
Mikhail Gorbachev was second secretary, and
therefore officially deputy to the late leader. Gorbachev had won that race by
only one vote.
Tanya and Vasili had been more and less
living together, unofficially for two years. They were not married: once they
became a legal couple they would never be allowed to leave the USSR together.
Tanya continued to write reports for TASS that followed the party line
slavishly. Vasili was now lead writer on a television show.
A radio commentator was describing a
visit by Gorbachev and his wife to a jeans factory in Leningrad. Previous
Soviet leader had visited steel mills and shipyards. Gorbachev celebrated
consumer goods. She took his wife with him. She was attractive and
well-dressed, like American first lady. She was intelligent, too, she had
worked as a university lecturer until her husband became first secretary.
The Soviet economy was getting worse and
worse, and Gorbachev was going to stop subsidizing all the East European
states. Dimka had big office in Kremlin now, he was the one who declared the
freedom of the East European. After forty years of Soviet domination of Eastern
Europe was coming to an end. The Iron Curtain was coming down. Suddenly people
were allowed to walk over the border and into the West, that could be change
even more momentous than free election.
East German government would continue to
allow people to go to Hungary. By November there were demonstrations every week
in major towns in East Germany. The numbers grew larger and the crowds grew
bolder. Thousands of Berliners were gathering on both sides of infamous Wall,
demanding to exercise their brand-new right to cross over, while the government
did nothing—and the armed guards grew increasingly nervous. A new generation of
leaders came to power, most importantly Gorbachev. Rebecca remembered that day
in August 1961, when she was thirty, and she had left home to walk to West Berlin
and found all the crossing points blocked by barbed wire.
The barrier had now been there for half
her life time. The Berlin Wall has fallen down, Mr. Gorbachev tore down the
wall. The first person Rebecca saw was her father. Everyone was shouting. There
was George, Maria Summer’s husband for the last twelve years, now white-haired
at seventy-two. Jack, a lawyer, George’s son with Verena, at age twenty-eight,
with his wife and their daughter. They were all watching TV. Onstage was the first
African American president with his wife and their girls. It was election
night, and Barack Obama had won. Maria knew why her husband was crying. Her
husband was crying for Bobby, Martin, and Jack. For all the freedom fighters, dead
and alive.
******
June 16, 2017
Sekapur
Sirih
Buku fiksi yang sangat panjang, terdiri
dari 1112 halaman dicetak oleh Signet, merupakan buku ketiga dari Century
Trilogy, diterbitkan tahun 2015, terbitan pertamanya sendiri pada tahun 2014.
Ken Follett adalah novelis berkebangsaan Inggris. Walau tidak membaca buku pertama
dan keduanya, namun fiksi dapat diikuti tanpa mengalami kesulitan. Banyaknya
tokoh sempat membuat bingung, namun karena penulis sering menyebutkannya,
sangat membantu memahaminya. Sejumlah tokoh muncul dan terputus terkadang
sedikit mengurangi kenyamanan, tapi karena memuat narasi dan percakapan
berkelas dan penuturan sejarah actual maka cerita ini tetap menarik dinikmati
Ada empat latar negara dalam novel ini:
Jerman (Berlin Timur dan Berlin Barat), Uni Soviet, Amerika Serikat, dan
Inggris. Kisah sejarah perang dingin pada tahun enam puluhan, di mana Uni
Soviet mengontrol Berlin Timur (Jerman Timur) setelah Jerman lepas dari Hitler.
Sementara Jerman Barat bersekutu dengan Amerika Serikat.
Sejarah, politik, espionase
internasional, akhir runtuhnya komunis di Jerman, perang Vietnam, ancaman
penyerangan ke negara Cuba, penyebaran paham komunis oleh USSR di berbagai
belahan dunia, isu ras di Amerika, peluncuran satelit, dan prestasi Yuri
Gagarin dibumbui dengan kisah dramatis keluarga, percintaan, pengkhianatan,
perpisahan, kesuksesan, pembunuhan, kehancuran dan semua tokoh berakhir pada
kebahagiaan.
Ada tokoh George Jakes berkulit hitam
berayahkan Rusia bekerja pada departemen Kehakiman di Gedung Putih, sebagai
pembantu Robert Kennedy (saudara dari preisedn JFK) -- berjuang membela hak-hak
kulit hitam; ada tokoh muda seniman/ artis terkenal bersaudara Evie dan Dave
dari Inggris; tokoh wanita pemberani Rebecca dan keluarganya yang terberai oleh
Tembok Berlin dan terintimidasi oleh rezim komunis Berlin Timur, dan adik
adopsinya Walli, gitaris dan pencipta lagu ternama mendunia; tokoh kembar Dimka
dan Tanya di Moskow dari keluarga elite, harus hidup berdamai walau tidak suka
dengan rezim Stalinisme dan Kremlin.
Penulis sangat lihai dalam menghubungkan
semua tokoh terpaut satu sama lain walau beda benua dan perjuangan hidup,
dihubungkan dengan situasi politik yang berkecambuk saat itu dengan memasukkan
tokoh-tokoh internasional ke dalam percakapan tokoh fiksi seperti JFK, RFK, Nikita
Khrushchev, Michael Gorbachev, dan Martin Luther King yang berinteraksi
langsung dengan para tokoh. Dan di akhir semuanya bahagia dan diakhiri pada
usia tua, manakala sejumlah tokoh dikisahkan sejak berusia belasan.
Terjemahan
Ringkasan dalam Bahasa Indonesia novel Edge of Eternity karya Ken Follet:
summary
Berlin
Timur
Tinggal di balik tembok Berlin wilayah
Timur adalah mimpi buruk bagi Rebecca dan keluarganya. Perlakuan Stasi dan Polisi Jerman Timur(Vopos) perbatasan semakin semema-mena. Para Vopos akan selalu mencurigai
keluarga atau warga yang hendak melintas ke Jerman Barat. Ayah Rebecca adalah
seorang pengusaha pabrik pembuatan televisi di Jerman Barat, dan ia harus
bolak-balik perbatasan menemui keluarganya. Rebecca adalah anak adopsi, gadis
yatim piatu yang diangkat keluarga Frank. Kedua orang tua kandungnya telah
tewas dalam perang. Rebecca memiliki dua saudara yakni anak-anak kandung dari
Frank, mereka juga jauh lebih muda dari dirinya; Walli dan Lili. Bahkan ketika
orang tuanya bekerja, Rebecca berperan sebagai ibu bagi mereka.
Di apartemen tua dan besar juga tinggal nenek
Maud, berdarah Inggris. Kakek Walli dulu
seorang diplomat Jerman yang bertugas di London. Rebeca kini mengajar di sebuah
sekolah dan ia telah menikah dengan seorang anggota Stasi (polisi Jerman Timur).
Hans Hoffman, suaminya juga turut tinggal di rumah warisan ibu angkat Rebecca.
Ibu angkat Rebecca tidak mau
meninggalkan rumahnya berpindah ke Jerman Barat, kediaman keluarganya yang sudah
turun temurun. Sepucuk surat dari kantor Stasi mengelisahkan Rebecca, ia pun
diinterogasi oleh pihak Stasi. Ia sangat kecewa dan marah ketika mendapati
bahwa Hans menikahi dirinya untuk memata-matai keluarganya. Keduanya pun
bercerai dan Rebecca membuka hatinya; jatuh cinta dengan teman sekerjanya juga seorang
guru. Sudah tidak asing, jika seorang Stasi bertindak seenaknya. Dibakar cemburu
Bernd, kekasih Rebecca yang baru, keduanya dituduh pengkhianat negara.
Keduanya pun memutuskan melarikan diri
ke Jerman Barat. Nyaris tertangkap, Bernd harus pincang karena terjatuh dari
atap ketika menyebrangi tembok. Kepincangan kaki Bernd tidak meluruhkan
keinginan Rebecca menikahi pria di atas kursi roda itu. Keduanya pun menempati
apartemen sederhana dan kembali bekerja sebagai pengajar. Walli, adik lelaki
Rebecca, rutin berkunjung ke Jerman Barat. Umumnya anak-anak muda senang dengan
fashion, musik dan film Amerika yang
bisa dinikmati di Jerman Barat. Remaja itu gemar bermain musik; piano dan
gitar.
Ayahnya sendiri kecewa dengan keinginan
Walli menjadi musisi, pewaris yang diandalkan
untuk melanjutkan pabrik ayahnya di Jerman Barat. Walli mengikuti sebuah kontes
di sebuah bar ketika bertemu Karolin yang juga turut audisi ketika itu.
Keduanya jatuh cinta, gadis sekolahan itu pun hamil. Ayah Karolin seorang PNS
yang takut kehilangan pekerjaannya, dan diancamoleh Stasi. Jika ia merestui
pernikahan putrinya dengan Walli, ia terancam kehilangan pekerjaan. Keluarga
Walli sedang dalam pengawasan Stasi, sejak pelarian Rebecca dan Bernd.
Kini Walli dan Karolin pun diincar.
Keduanya nekat ingin kawin lari ke Berlin Barat. Walli menabrak seorang anggota
Stasi dan dituduh menjadi seorang pembunuh, padahal ketika itu dalam pengejaran;
ia tidak sengaja menabrak sang petugas. Walli pun berlabel DPO. Remaja enam
belas tahun itu tidak berani pulang ke Berlin Timur, dan Karolin yang tengah
hamil pun jelas sudah dipersulit pada perbatasan. Walli akhirnya terbang ke
London ke rumah sepupunya Dave Williams, masih keluarga nenek Maud.
Moscow
Seorang wanita muda, seorang jurnalis
yang sedang naik daun, Tanya Dvorkin, baru saja kembali dari Siberia selesaikan
riset tulisan artikelnya tentang para tahanan politik di daerah dingin itu.
Tanya, kembarannya Dimka, ibunya Anya, dan kakek neneknya dari pihak ibunya
tinggal di sebuah apartemen mewah milik pemerintah yang dihuni oleh para elite
politik. Kakek, paman, dan mendiang ayah Tanya adalah jendral besar. Kembaran
Tanya Dimka, kini menjadi pembantu Jendral Nikita Khrushchev, jendral
reformator dan pesohor. Mereka membidangi pengawasan kebudayaan dan seni.
Simalakama, ketika Tanya dan rekannya seorang penyiar radio dan juga penulis
berkelas internasional, Vasili, masuk dalam daftar penangkapan departemen
pertahanan. Dimka dengan upaya mengamankan saudari kembarnya Tanya ke proyek peluncuran
misil di Cuba. Dimka mendapat kepercayaan dan tugas dalam mengirimkan misil dan
nuklir ke Cuba untuk mengancam Amerika Serikat, yang mereka duga akan menyerang
Cuba.
Sebenarnya perintahan USSR separuh hati
menolong Cuba, namun karena motivasi keberlangsungan paham komunis di wilayah
daratan Amerika, setelah mereka sukses menyebarkan pahamnya di Benua Timur.
Itupun Amerika menghadang komunis di Vietnam. Tapi tidak dengan Vasili, lelaki
tampan itu, harus ditahan di Siberia sebagai pengkhianat negara. Ia dan Tanya
secara sembunyi-sembunyi menerbitkan tulisan yang anti-komunis -- secara jujur
memberitakan keadaan Moskow dan USSR yang sebenarnya.
London
Sepupu Dave Williams, seumuran dengan
Walli, keduanya memiliki minat yang sama yakni musik. Keduanya pun giat mengikuti
audisi dan sering menyanyi di panggung-panggung tempat hiburan di London,
hingga akhirnya manajer musik melirik mereka. Walau tidak mudah keduanya pun
terkenal hingga pada akhirnya tinggal di Amerika. Walli tidak pernah pulang
bahkan putrinya Alice sudah berusia tiga tahun ia belum pernah melihatnya
sekalipun. Kehidupan glamour Hollywood membuat Walli terjerumus dalam narkoba,
sekaligus mengubahnya. Cinta dan kesetiaanya pada Karolin membuatnya bertahan
tidak menikah.
Sebuah surat yang dititipkan lewat Rebecca
di Jerman Barat menghancurkan hatinya, Karolin menikah dengan seorang pendeta.
Walli semakin terpukul mendalam dalam menceburkan diri dalam narkoba. Dave Williams
memiliki tunangan yang hampir dinikahinya juga diambil Walli. Grup musik mereka
pecah dan jalan sendiri-sendiri.
Seorang putra dari teman ibu Dave
bernama Jasper Murray berambisi bekerja sebagai jurnalis di Amerika. Ia pun
diterima dengan melalui perjalanan panjang hingga juga ikut perang dalam perang
Vietnam, walau ia sendiri adalah warga Inggris. Ia pun akhirnya berpindah
kewarganegaraan dan menjadi jurnalis terkenal di Amerika. Saudari perempuannya
Anna Murray juga menjadi seorang publisher ternama di London. Evie Williams,
kakak dari Dave menjadi aktris ternama bahkan hingga Hollywood. Gadis yang
sempat jatuh cinta pada Jasper Murray.
George
di Maryland, Amerika Serikat
Setelah Yuri Gagarin berhasil mencetak
rekor sebagai manusia pertama sampai di angkasa luar, Amerika tidak mau kalah,
mereka mengirimkan Alan Shepard. Walau telah ada warga Amerika berangkat ke
ruang angkasa, tetapi masalah toilet masih isu berat di Amerika. Penduduk berkulit
hitam tidak boleh menggunakan kamar mandi kulit putih. Dan tempat umum,
perkantoran, tempat belanja, restoran, ada tanda untuk kulit hitam. Di bis pun
mereka harus di belakang dan bertanda khusus.
George salah satu anak muda yang turut
dalam relli protes ‘Rider’ dan menuntut persamaan hak para Negro (istilah saat
itu). Ibu George, Jacky Jakes, berkulit hitam, namun ayahnya seorang keturunan
Rusia, yang tidak pernah menikahi ibunya. Greg Peshkov adalah seorang senator,
sementara ayahnya Peshkov adalah imigran pelarian politik dari rezim komunis
Soviet. Lelaki kaya berpenampilan necis itu berhasil membangun bisnis hingga
memiliki studio di Hollywood. Nenek George dari ayahnya, Marga, juga wanita
Rusia, adalah istri kedua dari kakeknya.
George mempunyai sepupu berkulit putih
di London. Kakek George memiliki putri dari istri pertamanya, Olga. Bibi George
bernama Daisy menikah dengan pria Inggris dan kini tinggal di London.
Kakek-neneknya menyayangi George, walau mereka berbeda kulit. Kakeknya
membiayai hidup dan kuliah George. Lelaki muda itu telah lulusan dari jurusan
hukum dari Harvard, dan ayah George telah mencarikannya pekerjaan sementara pada
kantor temannya.
Mahasiswa berkulit hitam masih sangat
jarang di kampusnya, sehingga ia dengan mudah mengenali Verena Marquand, gadis
kuit hitam yang sangat cantik di kampusnya. Putri seorang bintang Hollywood
berkulit hitam dan beribukan pelakon panggung berkulit putih. Namun hati George
sempat tertambat pada Maria Summers, teman seperjuangan pada pergerakan
‘Rider’. Namun sayang, ia tidak ketemu lagi dengan gadis itu. Cucu dari pendeta
dan ayahnya seorang pengacara. Dengan tidak sulit, George akhirnya diterima
pada Departemen Kehakiman dan bekerja sebagai pembantu Robert Kennedy, adik
sang presiden.
Walli
dan Dave
Lagu-lagu ciptaan Walli Frank dan Dave
Williams mampu menarik minat penggemar musik dan mereka pun akhirnya tinggal di
California. Dave yang sempat jatuh cinta pada Beep Dewar, gadis muda putri dari
teman keluarganya, sempat dikenalnya ketika keluarga Dewar tinggal di London.
Dave sudah tenar, gadis itupun dengan mudah menerima cintanya. Lain halnya, Walli
masih setia pada Karolin di Berlin Timur. Evi Williams saudari dari Dave, tenar
menjadi seorang aktris terkenal dan bahkan syuting di Hollywood. Dave sempat
menemui ayah George selama di Amerika, bahkan kenalan keluarga Jasper Murray
pun direkomendasikan menemui sepupunya George.
Moskow
Dimka akhirnya menikahi Nina, seorang janda
tanpa anak, dikenalkan temannya. Mereka pun memilki seorang anak, namun ia
kembali jatuh cinta pada rekan kerjanya Natalya, seorang wanita yang sudah
bersuami. Pada saat cintanya goyah, tidak berselang lama sejak kelahiran anak
mereka, Dimka mendapati istrinya berselingkuh dengan seorang pejabat militer
yang tinggal bersebelahan dengan dacha (villa) mereka di luar kota. Situasi
politik komunis merosot. Kembarannya Tanya sudah mengingatkannya, kalau si
janda Nina, wanita ambisius itu hanya memanfaatkan Dimka agar bisa tinggal di
apartemen elite, dan masuk dalam pergaulan elite.
Kehadiran Mikhael Gorbachev seorang
reformis dan realis memiliki pandangan berbeda dengan pemimpin lainnya. Memang
ia berjiwa komunis, tetapi ia lebih realitis akan situasi ekonomi negaranya.
Bila pemimpin sebelumnya lebih senang mengunjung pabrik senjata, maka Gorbachev
lebih suka mengunjungi pabrik jeans. Kemerosotan
ekonomi dan kemiskinan, memicu Gorbachev memutuskan untuk melepas negara-negara
jajahannya: Polandia, Chekoslovakia, juga Jerman Timur dari kekuasaan komunis
Soviet.
Penembakan yang berujung pada kematian Presiden
Kennedy dan kematian Martin Luther King banyak memengaruhi kebijakan dalam
negeri dan luar negeri Amerika. Kematian Kennedy memukul perasaan Maria
Summers, wanita gundik dari sang presiden. Perselingkuhan yang tercium oleh George,
membuatnya cemburu karena ia menyukai gadis berkulit hitam cantik itu. Kematian
Martin Luther King juga memukul Verena dan George secara pribadi karena
keduanya secara emosional sangat dekat dengan sang pendeta, tergabung dalam
gerakannya.
Kebebasan dan keruntuhan Tembok Berlin
bukanlah hasil keras Kennedy, tetapi karya dari Gorbachev. Tidak hanya Jerman
saja, negara-negara Uni Soviet pun mendapatkan kebebasannya. Di kota Berlin,
banyak keluarga-keluarga yang terpisah selama berdekade akhirnya bersatu
kembali. Walli telah sembuh dari ketergantungan narkoba, ia kurus-tirus hampir
tidak dikenali ibu dan saudarinya.
Sang musisi tenar itu dan keluarganya
akhirnya bisa berkumpul walau dalam usia tua, putrinya, Alicia, telah berumur
belasan, pertama kali ia melihatnya. Karolin sudah menjanda, diceraikan
suaminya yang ternyata seorang gay.
Tanya akhirnya hidup bersama dengan
Vasili yang sudah bebas dari hukuman, novel-novelnya diterjemahkan dan
diterbitakan menggunakan nama samaran di Inggris oleh Anna Murray, adik dari
jurnalis terkenal Jasper Murray. Karir Dimka berkembang baik dalam masa
Gorbachev, dan setelah bercerai dari Nina, ia menikahi Natalya. Nina akhirnya
menikahi dengan lelaki menjadi sumber keretakan pernikahannya dengan Dimka.
Sebelum kematiannya, kakeknya membawa George
pulang ke kampung halaman di Moskow,
diperkenalkan pada keluarga Peshkov lainnya yakni Tanya dan Dimka, walau mereka
sempat heran mengetahui sepupu mereka berkulit hitam.
Setelah pengkhianatan istrinya Verena
Marquand, George dan Maria akhirnya menikah pada usia yang tidak muda lagi. Mereka
berumur panjang, menyaksikan jika pidato mimpi yang pernah dilontarkan oleh
Martin Luther King kini terwujud nyata, keduanya menyaksikan terpilihnya Obama
sebagai presiden. Maria sangat paham kenapa suaminya, George, meneteskan air
mata ketika menyaksikan tayang TV di mana Obama dan keluarganya tampak di panggung.
Kakek berambut putih itu menangis untuk Bobby, Martin, dan Jack. Bagi semua
pejuang kemerdekaan hak, baik yang telah meninggal maupun yang masih hidup.
******
