Kane and Abel

British writer and former conservative politician Jeffrey Archer’s historical fiction Kane and Abel (1979) concerns two men linked only by a common birthday, who follow their ambitions to overcome their difficult pasts. The first, William Lowell Kane, is a member of the Boston elite known as the Brahmin; the second, Abel Rosnovski, leaves a life of severe poverty in Poland for Turkey and eventually New York City. Taking its name from a famous story about two brothers in the Book of Genesis, the novel is acclaimed for its powerful portrayal of the sentiment that human fates can be entangled in each other regardless of familial or class differences. Kane and Abel remains one of the top-selling books in the world and has entered the canon of British literature.

The novel is constructed of vignettes of the experiences of William (who goes mainly by his last name “Kane”) and Abel Rosnovski, who are both born on April 18, 1906. In early adulthood, Kane aspires to be like his father, Richard Kane, a successful banker. Richard died when Kane was young in the tragic crash of the steamship Titanic during its voyage from England to New York City. Kane, as a result, inherited Richard’s fortune, including the bank Kane & Cabot. Though fatherless, Kane attends and excels at St. Paul’s School, and goes on to enroll at Harvard College in Boston. His widowed mother, Anne, remarries to a gambler and womanizer, Henry Osborne.

Kane finds that Henry is his godfather, and resents his influence on his mother. He retreats into his studies at Harvard, turning to his school friends, including his best friend, Mathew Lester. Kane sets his sights on eventually becoming an executive of Lester’s bank. Meanwhile, Henry drains Anne’s inheritance, pretending to assist her in investing her wealth. Anne becomes pregnant with Henry’s child but soon learns that she can separate from him without any financial risk. She also employs a private investigator to delve into his personal life. When the detective reveals that Henry Osborne is really Vitorio Tossana, Anne suffers a miscarriage and dies with the baby. Devastated and outraged, Kane throws Vitorio out of the Kane estate.



In parallel, Abel Rosnovski is conceived with the birth name Wladek Koskiewicz. He is raised in the woods by a family of animal trappers. As he matures, people recognize him for his intelligence. A baron named Rosnovski proposes that he stay at his castle to provide intellectual stimulation for his son, Leon. Wladek accepts but requires that the baron also lodge his sister, Florentyna. World War I begins not long after they move, and Poland is overtaken by the German army. The Germans invade the castle, killing Leon and the Baron. The Baron bestows his power unto Wladek, whereupon he sees that they both have a missing nipple and realizes he is his biological son. Florentyna also dies at the hands of Russian soldiers.

Wladek is transported to Siberia and then flees to Turkey. Impoverished, he is caught stealing food and nearly has his hand cut off. Luckily, two politicians from Britain see the silver band the baron gave him and help him get to the Polish consulate. From there, he emigrates to the United States and changes his name to Abel Rosnovski.

Abel becomes a waiter at the Hotel Plaza in New York and studies economics at Columbia University. He is promoted to manager of a different hotel known as Richmond. Richmond’s owner kills himself during the Great Depression, leaving ownership to Abel, who had by then become his closest friend. Abel learns that he fell into despair after the bank Kane & Cabot refused to support his business, and pledges to avenge his death. An anonymous patron supports Richmond, and Abel marries Zaphia, a Polish woman whom he had met on the ship to the United States.



Abel changes Richmond’s name to Baron and meets Henry Osborne, now an aspiring politician, who joins him as a partner. Abel bears a daughter, naming her after Florentyna, and Kane bears a son and two daughters, naming them Richard, Lucy, and Virginia. As World War II rages, both men volunteer to serve, and Abel unknowingly saves Kane from death. Abel divorces Zaphia when he returns, and tries to secure 8 percent of Kane’s bank in order to call a board meeting. Meanwhile, the two encounter each other numerous times, never aware of their convergences.

Abel’s daughter, Florentyna, and Kane’s son, Richard, fall in love, ignorant of their fathers’ feud. When their fathers discover their impending marriage, they try to stop it, to no avail. Kane manages to destroy Abel’s credibility by publicizing his relationship to Osborne, foiling his chance to become U.S. Ambassador to Poland. In response, Abel gains the necessary stock in Kane’s bank and throws him out of leadership. In the 1960s, Kane and Abel both attend Florentyna and Richard’s opening of a boutique business. They acknowledge each other from afar, but Kane dies before he meets Florentyna and William, his grandson. In a final plot twist, Abel finds out that Kane was the anonymous backer of his hotel business. Devastated, he absolves some of his regrets by reconciling with Florentyna and Richard. When Abel dies, he gives his estate to Florentyna. He gifts his grandson, William Abel Kane, the silver band that once marked him a baron.

A novel that deeply interrogates the complexity and ambiguity of human motivation, deception, and reconciliation, Kane and Abel departs from its Biblical namesake, framing it in a modern world of great geographical and class mobility. The successful marriage of their children, and their shared stake in their grandson’s name symbolizes Archer’s optimism about humankind’s innate capacity for good despite its increasingly unstable world.