MY NOVELS

World Without End

The No. 1 New York Times best-seller.

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.

World Without End is the sequel to The Pillars of the Earth. However, it doesn’t matter which you read first. The second book is set in the same town, Kingsbridge, but takes place two hundred years later, and features the descendants of the original characters.

Published as…

Italian flag British flag Australian flag United States Canadian flag Dutch flag Spanish flag German flag Norwegian flag Danish flag Brasil French flag Sweden
The Italian edition, Mondo Senza Fine, is published by Mondadori.
The Dutch edition, Brug naar de Hemel, is published by Van Holkema & Warendor.
 The Spanish edition, Un mundo sin fin, is published by RHM.
The Catalan edition, Un món sense fi, is published by Edicions 62.
The German edition, Die Tore Der Welt, is published by Lübbe.
The Hungarian edition, Az idők végezetéig, is published by Gabo.
The Danish edition, Uendelige verden, is published by Cicero.
The Norwegian edition, I all evighet, is publsihed by JW Cappelens.
The Brazilian edition, Mundo sem fin, is publshed by Editora Rocco.
The French edition, Un monde sans fin, is published by Robert Laffont.
The Swedish edition, En värld utan slut, is published by Albert Bonniers Förlag.

MacmillanPan Macmillan has a limited number of exclusive signed boxed editions of the UK edition of World Without End available via their web site.
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The characters

Caris is the feisty daughter of wool dealer Edmund Wooler. She is a direct descendent of Tom Builder, the hero of the first half of The Pillars of the Earth. As a child, she announces that she is going to be a doctor – but girls cannot study medicine in medieval Europe. However, she refuses to accept this prohibition. Her determination brings her into conflict with the church, and blights her relationship with the man she loves.

Merthin is descended from Jack Builder, the stepson of Tom and the architect of Kingsbridge Cathedral. He has inherited Jack’s genius. But for the conservative citizens who rule Kingsbridge he is too much of a rule-breaker, and like Jack he is forced to leave.

Ralph is Merthin’s brother, but a very different character – strong, aggressive, impatient of books, an accomplished rider and hunter. He will use his warlike skills to rise to the very top of medieval society.

Gwenda is the daughter of a dirt-poor labourer and one of five starving children. She is plain-looking, but determined to marry Wulfric – the handsomest, wealthiest boy in the village. Wulfric is engaged to the coquettish Annet, daughter of a prosperous peasant. But Gwenda refuses to believe she cannot win his heart.

Brother Godwyn, also a descendant of Tom Builder, is a cousin of Caris. He becomes a monk at a young age and is determined to become prior of Kingsbridge – and he is not particular about the means he will use to get there.

 

Bestseller lists

 

Ken's view

Hear Ken discuss World Without End in an inteview with Phillipa McEwan.

Audio and text excerpts

Excerpt  Read an excerpt

 

Reading guide

Students and reading groups. See the discussion guide to World Without End.