World Without End ...

Ever since The Pillars of the Earth was published in 1989, readers have been asking me to write a sequel. The book is so popular that I’ve been nervous about trying to repeat its success. But at last I screwed up my courage, and wrote World Without End.

I couldn’t write another book about building a cathedral, because that would be the same book. And I couldn’t write another story about the same characters, because by the end of 'Pillars' they are all very old or dead. 'World Without End' takes place in the same town, Kingsbridge, and features the descendants of the 'Pillars' characters two centuries later.

The cathedral and the priory are again at the centre of a web of love and hate, greed and pride, ambition and revenge. But at the heart of the story is the greatest natural disaster ever to strike the human race: the plague known as the Black Death, which killed something like half the population of Europe in the fourteenth century. The people of the Middle Ages battled this lethal pestilence and survived – and, in doing so, laid the foundations of modern medicine.

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, I all evighet by JW Cappelens in April, Mundo sem fin, by Editora Rocco in July, a French edition, Un monde sans fin, by Robert Laffont on 1 October 2008, and a Swedish edition by Albert Bonniers Förlag on 17 October 2008.

Pan 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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What readers think…

Topped the Belgian best-seller list (November 2008)
#1 on The Sunday Times paperback best-seller list (19 October 2008)
Topped the French best-seller list within a week of publication (October 2008)
#1 on The New York Times best-seller list (28 October 2007)
#1 on The Globe and Mail bestseller list (26 October 2007)
#1 on the Booksellers New Zealand best-seller list (26 October 2007)
#1 on the Entertainment Weekly best-seller list (26 October 2007)
#1 on the Publishers Weekly best-seller list (22 October 2007)
#1 on The Wall Street Journal best-seller list (13 October 2007)
Topped the Italian best-seller list within a week of publication (October 2007)

News & views

A tremendous honour in Vitoria, Spain

Ken was in Vitoria, Spain from 8th to 11th January 2008 to launch the Spanish language edition of World without End, Un mundo sin fin. On Thursday 10th a life size statue of Ken created by the Basque sculptor Casto Solana was unveiled. The statue stands in the Plaza de Burullerías, the square beside the Cathedral. >> more

Oprah Winfrey chooses The Pillars of the Earth!

Oprah Winfrey chose The Pillars of the Earth as the 60th Oprah’s Book Club selection. She said, "It’s such a great read… it’s like nothing I would ever read or had ever read before… I got to 800 pages, and I slowed myself down because I didn’t want it to end." >> more

The Art of Suspense – a talk on the history of the thriller

I've been reading thrillers for longer than I've been writing them. I've put my ideas on how thrillers work and why we love to read them into a lecture – The Art of Suspense.

I delivered The Art of Suspense at the famous 92nd St Y in New York last year (on Halloween!), and it was filmed and published on DVD. If you would like to watch a streaming video version or order a copy on DVD, please see 'The Art of Suspense' page.

On my site you'll also find…

Information on my novels – including audio and text excerpts – movie versions and links to publishers worldwide.
My biography, also avaIlable in Adobe PDF format in Dutch, French, German, Italian and Spanish.
Questions you have asked, letters you have written to me over the years, and (whoops!) errors in my novels.
Masterclass: advice and tips on how to plan and write a novel – and how to find a publisher
My talk on the history of the thriller – 'The Art of Suspense'
Information about my archives, held at the Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan, United States
My music, information and artwork for the media, and more…

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