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.
Publication dates
The Italian edition, Mondo Senza Fine, from Mondadori, was published on 18 September 2007. World Without End was published by Macmillan in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Dubai on 4 October, and by Penguin in the USA and Canada on 9 October and topped the major best-seller lists in the first fortnight. The Dutch edition, Brug naar de Hemel, from Van Holkema & Warendorf, was published on 20 October 2007. The Spanish edition, Un mundo sin fin, by RHM and the Catalan edition, Un món sense fi, by Edicions 62, were published on 28 December 2007. The German edition, Die Tore Der Welt, was published by Lübbe on 29 February 2008, the Hungarian edition, by Gabo on 20 March, and a Danish edition, Uendelige verden, by Cicero on 31 March 2008, a Norwegian edition by JW Cappelens in April, and a Brasilian Portuguese edition by Editora Rocco in July.
A French edition, Un Monde Sans Fin, will be published by Robert Laffont on 2 October, and a Swedish edition by Albert Bonniers Förlag on 17 October 2008. The UK paperback edition will be published on 3 October 2008 and the US paperback edition on 7 October.
Pan Macmillan has a limited number of exclusive signed boxed editions of the UK edition of World Without End available via their web site, which are available now.
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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
- #1 on The New York Times best-seller list (28 October)
- #1 on The Globe and Mail bestseller list (26 October)
- #1 on the Booksellers New Zealand best-seller list (26 October)
- #1 on the Entertainment Weekly best-seller list (26 October)
- #1 on the Publishers Weekly best-seller list (22 October)
- #1 on The Wall Street Journal best-seller list (13 October)
- #1 on the Sony e-book best-seller list in the USA (13 October)
- #3 on The Sunday Times best-seller list (28 October)
- #2 in Spain (English edition, 17 October)
- #3 in Germany (English edition, 17 October)
- Topped the Italian best-seller list within a week of publication (October)
Ken's view
Hear Ken discuss World Without End in an inteview with Phillipa McEwan.
Audio and text excerpts
Reading guide
Students and reading groups. See the discussion guide to World Without End.
