#1 New York Times BestsellerAn Amazon Best Book of 2020A thrilling and addictive new novel–a prequel to The Pillars of the Earth–set in England at the dawn of a new era: the Middle Ages“Just as transporting as [The Pillars of the Earth] . . . A most welcome addition to the Kingsbridge series.” –The Washington PostIt is 997 CE, the end of the Dark Ages. England is facing attacks from the Welsh … the end of the Dark Ages. England is facing attacks from the Welsh in the west and the Vikings in the east. Those in power bend justice according to their will, regardless of ordinary people and often in conflict with the king. Without a clear rule of law, chaos reigns.
In these turbulent times, three characters find their lives intertwined. A young boatbuilder’s life is turned upside down when the only home he’s ever known is raided by Vikings, forcing him and his family to move and start their lives anew in a small hamlet where he does not fit in. . . . A Norman noblewoman marries for love, following her husband across the sea to a new land, but the customs of her husband’s homeland are shockingly different, and as she begins to realize that everyone around her is engaged in a constant, brutal battle for power, it becomes clear that a single misstep could be catastrophic. . . . A monk dreams of transforming his humble abbey into a center of learning that will be admired throughout Europe. And each in turn comes into dangerous conflict with a clever and ruthless bishop who will do anything to increase his wealth and power.
Thirty years ago, Ken Follett published his most popular novel, The Pillars of the Earth. Now, Follett’s masterful new prequel The Evening and the Morning takes us on an epic journey into a historical past rich with ambition and rivalry, death and birth, love and hate, that will end where The Pillars of the Earth begins.
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Ken Follett is my favorite author. When I am reading (and listening to) one of his books, I dream about the characters at night & can’t wait to get back to them during the day. This long, wonderful novel is a gift to all Follett’s readers!
The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett is an excellent historical fiction and addition to the Kingsbridge series. This installment is a prequel to the current books at the books sets the reader smack at the end of the dark ages for England at 997CE.
The trio of stories and intertwining is exquisite and what Follette does best. There were heroes, villains, goodness overcoming evil, romance, suspense, backstabbing, and twists thrown in for good measure.
What I loved the most was the wonderful literary descriptions of landscapes, buildings, culture, society, and day to day lives of the people at this time. I learned so much about society and England during the dark ages to add to my previous knowledge. It was definitely a great book. I loved every minute of it (but I love the series as well).
Excellent 5/5 stars
Thank you Viking/Penguin Publishing for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.
I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon and B&N accounts upon publication.
The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett is Historical Fiction and is the prequel to The Pillars of the Earth. This book is set in England in the Middle Ages 997 AD.
It is quite a privilege to read the latest Ken Follett book. This series is memorable as are the characters and worthy to be read again. I have loved this series because of its rich historical details. Immediately you are drawn into the story and it will not let you go. While reading the words you see your surroundings, hear the sounds, feel even the heat of the sun, and know the thoughts of each character. Will I sleep the next few days or read and live through this book? I don’t know how to express how much I enjoyed this book and wish it went on and on.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. I appreciate the opportunity and thank the author and publisher for allowing me to read, enjoy and review this book. 5 Stars
I am officially in a book coma now… after reading all 3 previous books in the Kingsbridge series, was there any chance I’d miss the newest one, the prequel, entitled The Evening and the Morning? Nope… it was gonna happen as soon as possible. NetGalley declined me. I waited until the library had it available because I promised myself no new books until I read some on my TBR. I thought it would take 2 months to get to me on the list, then four days ago, NYPL told me I was next on the list. So… of course, I read it as soon as I arrived in Maine. Two days later, another 900 pages later, I want another one in the series ASAP!
I don’t know how to explain it… Follett is just brilliant when it comes to characters, plot, and conflict. He totally captures my heart and emotions, and I get so angry at these villains. Murder. Violence. Theft. Betrayal. Sure, it’s slightly exaggerated… of course, it crosses a few lines to make certain groups look awful, but ultimately, this is fiction, and this is about finding an engaging read, so that’s why I love this author’s work. It’s now the fifth book I’ve read, of about 20, and I will keep reading through them all. I admit, he’s my favorite. See… I can barely write this review.
Okay, so what do you need to know? Approximately the year 1000. Norman and English settlements. The Vikings are coming. The King needs help. The priory is full of corruption. But there is love. Hope. Knowledge. Humor. There is a bit of everything, and I find myself constantly switching my mind on what could happen because the author just shocks us with how evil some characters can be. In the other books in this series, the timeline is usually several decades. This one is barely a single decade, and for the most part, it all takes place in a three-year period. Alliances. Vengeance. And in the end, something comes together to make us feel a little better.
Ragna. Edgar. Two beautiful characters. Get to know them. Now.
It’s been a while since I’ve read a book by Ken Follett, and I am oh-so glad that I jumped back in. I love the world of Kingsbridge, which Ken Follett created first in Pillars of the Earth, and with The Evening and the Morning, we get to see the early transition of the town from a humble dwelling to a prosperous settlement. It has the tragic love story, and action and adventure which I enjoy in all of Ken Follett’s books, along with amazing historical world building. Oh, and there are also Vikings, raiding and plundering the nearby towns and villages. Great book. Highly recommend.
In The Evening and the Morning, Ken Follett shows that he’s still a master at giving the reader the same thing, but different.
The book is the fourth entry in his Kingsbridge series, which began with The Pillars of the Earth. I haven’t read the third installment, A Column of Fire, but I assume it follows the same pattern: in pre-industrial England, characters from different classes—clergy, nobles, and peasants—go about their daily lives in ways that bring them into union and conflict. In the process, we get regular injections of sex, violence, and history.
(My review of the second book, World Without End, included this summary: “in terms of archetypes, there’s a fair bit of overlap with the first book—the leads include a clever builder, a brutish fighter, and an enterprising woman who chafes against conventional wisdom. But over the course of [many years], we see the protagonists overcome fresh obstacles and setbacks … Decisions echo down through the years. Rivalries linger. Love blooms and withers and blooms again.” The description works just as well here.)
The Evening and the Morning has a twist, though: the story is a prequel, set in the Dark Ages, more than a hundred years before the events of The Pillars of the Earth.
I liked this approach because Follett is writing first and foremost about a place—and not a continuing set of characters. Or to put it another way, the central character of the Kingsbridge series is Kingsbridge, Follett’s fictional English town. In the (chronologically) later books, we see Kingsbridge develop and expand. But in The Evening in the Morning, we see how Kingsbridge becomes Kingsbridge.
Its beginnings are humble. The hamlet (not yet a town) has no bridge and a less illustrious name. The entrance to the church is crumbling; the entire structure is gradually sliding down a hill. The leadership is corrupt. The island in the river is full of lepers.
But by the end of the novel, Kingsbridge comes into its own, changing more than any of the people who shaped it. (The human characters in this series are rarely dynamic; for the most part, they’re either all good or all bad, with little complexity.) The transformation is fun to watch.
As usual, I enjoyed the historical details—although, as Follet notes in the afterword, “The Dark Age left few traces. Not much was written down, there were few pictures, and nearly all buildings were made of wood that rotted away a thousand years ago or more. This leaves room for guesswork and disagreement, more so than with the preceding period of the Roman Empire or the subsequent Middle Ages.”
Even so, The Evening in the Morning seems like it’s on solid ground when it illustrates how hard women had it. Most were exploited by men; many died in childbirth; few lived to old age. The book also explores an early version of slavery. According to Follett, the majority of slaves in England during this era were Britons, people pressed into bondage “from the wild western fringes of civilization, Wales and Cornwall and Ireland.” Others voluntarily gave up their freedom to escape starvation. Whatever their origin, young slaves were often prostituted, and the punishment for abusing them was mild. Another wrinkle is that the story runs through a time when the primary adversary of the English wasn’t the French, but the Vikings. Norse raids were frequent and devastating, and they took their share of captives.
None of this alters the overall plot much. The good guys still find happiness in the end; the bad guys still get their comeuppance. You wouldn’t be far off if you said The Evening in the Morning is essentially The Pillars of the Earth with a different cover. It’s a fair critique.
And my reply would be, “So what? I zipped through it anyway—all nine hundred pages.” Not every author consistently fosters that type of momentum. But Follett’s formula works, even when you recognize it.
(For more reviews like this one, see http://www.nickwisseman.com)
A great prequel to a spectacular series.
Great characters, well researched, and engrossing story. I cared about what happened to the characters and it kept me turning the pages. Now I need to re-read Pillars of the Earth! This was a wonderful prequel.
This book lives up to the standard that Pillars of the Earth set so high so many years ago. I loved this one as much as the first in the series. I continue to be enthralled with this series. Wonderful writing and great characters all blended into history and layered with fiction. A time very well spent.
Another excellent novel from a top-tier storyteller. This one is a prequel to Pillars of the Earth, the first and best of the four Kingsbridge books. This chronicles the creation of the Kingsbridge itself and how it led to the creation of a church and village in about the year 1000.
Follett’s characters, as always, are interesting and lots of fun, but he is focused on progressing the story. It’s a storyteller’s tale of religious politics and gender roles. Like the other books in the series, the love of architecture shines through.
This book explores sexual power and the power of men over women much more than the others. In fact, this book is full of sex, violent sex. Rape is common and often brutally described. The sexual exploitation of young girls is at the center of this book. I am sure that he has researched the time well and that older men taking young slave girls for sex was indeed common, but it doesn’t make it any easier to read. To his credit, he treats the acts as disposable but part of the fabric of the society at the time. Still, the images of thirteen year old girls being raped occur more than once in the book. At one point, a twenty-two year old slave used a a prostitute, joyously proclaims that men don’t want to sleep with her because she is too old. But Follett isn’t interested in profanity or obscenity, he focuses on the power dynamics at play in the society run by rich men where no one else has any power.
I don’t want to give the impression that the book is dark or tortuous. It is a fun and often funny tale with clear villains and heros who all get their due. After 4,000+ pages in the Kingsbridge series through four books, I have loved it all and would be thrilled to read another addition to the series.
I hadn’t read any Ken Follett before and wanted to see what all the fuss was about – and now I understand! Sweeping, powerful, life-and-death stakes, an unfamiliar world (England in the Dark Ages) skillfully drawn. Grim at times but includes some humor (“I’ve got a bad back!”) in the darkness (so much rape and a fair number of murders) to keep it from being relentlessly rough going. Great on audiobook.
Not Ken Folletts finest hour, but it’s Ken Follett ! He never misses.
“[L]ogic Didn’t win many battles”
This book develops as the “prequel” to the Pillars of the Earth- Follet’s magnificent trilogy. We have gone from the Puritan leave-taking for the “New” World backwards in time to Kingsbridge’s beginnings in the 900s C.E as a humble ferry crossing owned by a shirttail cousin of the “powers that be” to the beginning of what is known as “The Middle Ages”.
Power corrupts and takes everything in its path until faith in G-d and humankind begin to turn things around: to be paid by learning to read; to placate anger with understanding when you can; to stand up for what is right. These are hallmarks of Ken Follett whether as a thriller writer of a historical fiction writer with chutzpah enough to go backwards and strengthen the foundations of this magnificent saga. Highly Recommended 5/5
The story is set in England over the ten years between AD 997 and 1007. The central character is a ship builder, Edgar, whose village is burned down by the Vikings. He loses everything, including his father and the girl he was going to run away with. Through brains and hard work, he builds his life back, though not without constant obstacles thrown up by a greedy and malicious trio of brothers. The bad guys get what’s coming to them and the good folks get justice and due rewards, which is my favorite kind of ending. Engaging reading (all 915 pages of it. You get your money’s worth with Follett’s novels).
John Lee narrated this book and his talent with accents and giving life to the different characters made this even more enjoyable. Plus hearing how the names are pronounced was a plus.
It is 997 CE, the end of the Dark Ages. England is facing attacks from the Welsh in the west and the Vikings in the east. Those in power bend justice according to their will, regardless of ordinary people and often in conflict with the king. Without a clear rule of law, chaos reigns.
It is 997 CE, with Vikings raiding England, England and Wales sparing with each other, and Normandy in relative peace. The book follows three main characters: A Norman daughter of a count who marries an English aristocrat for love, a brilliant young boat builder planning to run away with a married woman, and a monk with hopes of creating a place of learning with a library.
The boat builder’s plans are ruined when he spots the Vikings about to attack; the woman he loves is killed, his family is left destitute, and they end up moving to a farm in a small hamlet. The Noblewoman follows her husband to England only to find a much different life than expected, she and her husband have separate houses and life is a constant battle of wits to survive. The monk is a religious man but finds his Bishop and some priests are less than holy and it is a struggle to not push back in this toxic environment.
I liked the details of life in this era, from the details about building everything from boats to bridges to churches; life in small villages and in the seats of power. The three major characters were intelligent with strong moral values, surrounded by people who were not.
Ken Follett’s “The Evening And The Morning” is a gripping prequel to “The Pillars of the Earth” that tells the story of how the fictional town of Kingsbridge came to be. Many of the novels’ elements are similar to those in “The Pillars Of The Earth” and “World Without End,” including several heroes and villains. But what makes each book different is the period in which they take place. “The Evening And The Morning” is set at the end of the 10th century and highlights the cruelty and injustice of the early Middle Ages. Back then, local magnates ruled virtually autonomously from the king’s laws, and this proves to be a nightmare for Ragna, a French noblewoman who marries into the duplicitous English family ruling Shiring. But life was far worse for the peasants and even more brutal for the slaves. This is the first novel I’ve read about this period of English history where slaves feature prominently (all of the slaves, as best I can tell, are Welsh captives). Fortunately, Ragna and Edgar, the novel’s other main protagonist, do their best to help those they can, making these characters easy to root for. If you enjoyed Follett’s other Kingsbridge novels, I suspect you will love “The Evening And The Morning.”
Ken Follett is an excellent writer. An excellent prequel to the trilogy.
Learn so much reading his books and his characters are interesting
Excellent prequel to the Kingsbridge series.
A riveting prequel to The Pillars of the Earth.