Not all of Follett’s readers, however, are familiar with his monumental historical novel,The Pillars of the Earth, published to critical acclaim nearly twenty years ago. Set in 12th century England, the sweeping epic focused on the building of a cathedral and the many lives it affected. Now – for fans of The Pillars of the Earth – the long wait for another of Follett’s sprawling historical sagas is over. World Without End arrives as what its publisher calls ‘the most anticipated sequel of the year.‘

Beginning in 1327, two centuries after the building of the cathedral in the town of Kingsbridge, World Without End features a vast cast of characters and a labyrinthine plot that spans more than three decades.

Central characters include Brother Godwin (an ambitious monk at the Kingsbridge priory), Gwenda (the bold daughter of an unscrupulous father), Merthin and Ralph (the vastly different sons of Sir Gerald and Lady Maud), Caris (the beautiful daughter of Edmund the Wooler, a young woman who would struggle to resolve the conflict between her sensual and spiritual natures), and Wulfric (the tireless personality who would grow up to become ‘the handsomest man Gwenda had ever seen‘).

These and dozens of other characters live their difficult and adventurous lives in Kingsbridge, a village with a proud past that finds itself now situated in the dynamic center of a rapidly changing society. Secular and sectarian powers collide as faith, politics, and social structures are challenged by reason, doubts, secrets, and passions. Further complicating life in this 14th century intersection of past and future are warfare abroad in France, local social upheavals, and plague in the village that will thoroughly test everyone’s strength and endurance.

Love and hate, greed and pride, ambition and revenge are omnipresent in the characters’ lives, and throughout the novel’s brilliantly written 981 pages, readers will remain spellbound by the author’s powerful vision of life in the Middle Ages.

Here, in one magnificent, mesmerizing, and massive volume, is everything readers crave in a historical novel: entertainment, instruction, and satisfaction. Enjoy!