Shelfology Book Pairing

by Ken Follett

#1 New York Times Bestseller In 1989, Ken Follett astonished the literary world with The Pillars of the Earth, a sweeping epic novel set in twelfth-century England centered on the building of a cathedral and many of the hundreds of lives it affected. World Without End is its equally irresistible sequel—set two hundred years after The Pillars of the Earth and three hundred years after the Kingsbridge prequel, The Evening and the Morning. World Without End takes place in the same town of Kingsbridge, two centuries after the townspeople finished building the exquisite Gothic cathedral that was at the heart of The Pillars of the Earth. The cathedral and the priory are again at the center of a web of love and hate, greed and pride, ambition and revenge, but this sequel stands on its own. This time the men and women of an extraordinary cast of characters find themselves at a crossroads of new ideas—about medicine, commerce, architecture, and justice. In a world where proponents of the old ways fiercely battle those with progressive minds, the intrigue and tension quickly reach a boiling point against the devastating backdrop of the greatest natural disaster ever to strike the human race—the Black Death. Three years in the writing and nearly eighteen years since its predecessor, World Without End is a "well-researched, beautifully detailed portrait of the late Middle Ages" (The Washington Post) that once again shows that Ken Follett is a masterful author writing at the top of his craft.

A Novel

by Colleen McCullough

Colleen McCullough's track record in publishing reads like Caesar's triumphs in battlewide-ranging in scope, masterful in style, unequaled in achievement. From her almost twelve-million-copy-selling Thorn Birds through her four novels in the Masters of Rome series, McCullough has never faltered. Here she turns her attentions to Caesar's conquest of Gaul and to his momentous decision at the river Rubicon to claim his place in the government of Rome. At a time that preceded the technology of any firearm, when military acumen, strategy, and leadership were all, it was Caesar's genius that prevailed, over and over. What Caesar accomplished in Gaul is the stuff of historical epic, of military academies, and of this novel. He was utterly awesome. Yet history forgets that Caesar was also a man, not immune to the human condition. He succeeded brilliantly, but he also suffered great personal grief and disappointment. It is the full portrait of Caesar, a man destined to inspire an empire, that Colleen McCullough paints here--faithfully, magnificently, and in radiant light. "McCullough is on fire.... Caesar is one of her strongest and most fascinating characters."San Francisco Chronicle