World Without End

August 6, 2007
Eighteen years after Pillars of the Earth
weighed in with almost 1,000 pages of juicy historical fiction about the construction of a 12th-century cathedral in Kingsbridge, England, bestseller Follett returns to 14th-century Kingsbridge with an equally weighty tome that deftly braids the fate of several of the offspring of Pillars
' families with such momentous events of the era as the Black Death and the wars with France. Four children, who will become a peasant's wife, a knight, a builder and a nun, share a traumatic experience that will affect each of them differently as their lives play out from 1327 to 1361. Follett studs the narrative with gems of unexpected information such as the English nobility's multilingual training and the builder's technique for carrying heavy, awkward objects. While the novel lacks the thematic unity of Pillars
, readers will be captivated by the four well-drawn central characters as they prove heroic, depraved, resourceful or mean. Fans of Follett's previous medieval epic will be well rewarded.

Starred review from October 1, 2007
For nearly 18 years, Follett has been receiving pleas for a sequel to his most popular novel, "The Pillars of the Earth". Finally, the wait is over. Some 200 years after "Pillars", the town of Kingsbridge is still dominated by its magnificent cathedral. But times have changed. War and plague have dramatically affected the infrastructure of the Middle Ages, shifting the base of power from the noble and religious to the rising merchant and artisan classes. Populated with an immense cast of truly remarkable charactersthe rich and powerful, the weak and downtrodden, clergy, guildsmen and nobilitythis novel explores the lives and fortunes of the ancestors of the original inhabitants of Kingsbridge. At nearly 1000 pages, this is not a book to be devoured in one sitting, tempting though that might be, but one to savor for its drama, depth, and richness. Essential for every public library; in fact, get multiple copies. You'll need them to fill all the requests. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 6/1/07.]Jane Henriksen Baird, Anchorage P.L., AK

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2007
This book is a big event. In 1989 Follett published what was to become one of his most popular novels, The Pillars of the Earth, a historical epic about the construction of an English cathedral, set in the twelfth century. Now, 18 years later and with several intervening best-sellers to his credit, Follett presents his eager fans with a sequel to Pillars. According to publicity material, he spent three years writing it, and it shows, because this an amazingly well-researched, intricately plotted, richly detailed novel that, while long in pages, never sprawls or flags. It is set in the same English cathedral town as Pillars, sometwo centurieslater, and hasas its primary characters the descendants of the major characters that appeared in the previous book. Folletts technique is to follow the lives of four individuals who have varying goals in life and, in the process, build a comprehensive tapestry of medieval English lifean especially important background thread beingthe horrible natural disaster of that era, the black plague. Follet has complete mastery over his material, and the result is a novel destined for the best-seller lists.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)