World Without End

Written by Ken Follett

Narrated by John Lee

On the day after Halloween, in the year 1327, four children slip away from the cathedral city of Kingsbridge. They are a thief, a bully, a boy genius and a girl who wants to be a doctor. In the forest they see two men killed.

As adults, their lives will be braided together by ambition, love, greed and revenge. They will see prosperity and famine, plague and war. One boy will travel the world but come home in the end; the other will be a powerful, corrupt nobleman. One girl will defy the might of the medieval church; the other will pursue an impossible love. And always they will live under the long shadow of the unexplained killing they witnessed on that fateful childhood day.

Ken Follett’s masterful epic The Pillars of the Earth enchanted millions of readers with its compelling drama of war, passion and family conflict set around the building of a cathedral. Now World Without End takes readers back to medieval Kingsbridge two centuries later, as the men, women and children of the city once again grapple with the devastating sweep of historical change.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Release date: Oct 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9780230756649

Ken Follett

Ken Follett was born in Cardiff, Wales. Barred from watching films and television by his parents, he developed an early interest in reading thanks to a local library. After studying philosophy at University College London, he became involved in centre-left politics, entering into journalism soon after. His first thriller, the wartime spy drama Eye of the Needle, became an international bestseller and has sold over 10 million copies. He then astonished everyone with his first historical novel, The Pillars of the Earth, the story of the building of a medieval cathedral, which went on to become one of the most beloved books of the twentieth century. One of the most popular authors in the world, his many books including the Kingsbridge series and the Century trilogy - a body of work which together chronicles over a thousand years of history - and his latest novel Never - which envisages how World War III could happen - have sold more than 188 million copies. A father and husband, Ken lives with his wife in England and enjoys travelling the world when he can.

Reviews for World Without End

[Eleanor Carson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

If this book wasn`t so enormous (1000+ pages), I would have attempted to listen to the entire thing in one go. I was riveted. Like other people, I felt the occasional urge to tell off Carlis, the main character, even while identifying with her fears and desires. A little clear communication with Merthin could have saved both of them years of useless grief. The reader is as captured by hatred of the antagonists as by the hopes and dreams of the protagonists. This book is the sequel to The Pillars of the Earth, which I love so much that I reread it every few years. While the sequel was very close in plotline and character arcs, telling the story of the descendants of the first book, it managed to be just as compelling. However, I can see tendrils of formulae in the story, and hope that Ken Follett has more variety in his other books, because now I want to read them all. In The Pillars of the Earth, Tom Builder built a great cathedral. In World Without End, Merthin builds the tallest tower in all of England for the cathedral, along with a bridge, a hospital, and several other buildings. Carlis manages to work as a healer at a time when educated monks still used blood-letting and other harmful practices based on classic writings and at a time when female healers were often burnt or hanged as witches. Their town goes through several waves of the plague, and her methods saved lives. Together, they work to improve living conditions in their town. I like books like this, since they give an idea of what life was like hundreds of years ago. This book is loosely based on real events but the plot and characters are fictional. I recommend this book for any adult interested in history.