Books Like The Pillars of the Earth: 12 Epic Historical Novels to Read Next (2026)

The Pillars of the Earth asks you to give it a thousand pages and then makes you wish it were longer. Ken Follett takes a building project, a cathedral that takes decades, and hangs a whole world on it: builders, monks, earls, a civil war, and a love story that survives all of it.

If you finished it and felt a bit lost, this list is for you. These twelve novels share at least one of its strengths: medieval England, a long timeline across generations, or ordinary people caught up in the decisions of kings.

Quick answer: read World Without End next for more Kingsbridge, Sarum if you liked watching a place change over centuries, and The Sunne in Splendour if the royal politics were your favorite part.

Book	Author	Setting	Best for
World Without End	Ken Follett	Kingsbridge, 1300s	More of the same world
The Evening and the Morning	Ken Follett	England, around 1000	How Kingsbridge began
Sarum	Edward Rutherfurd	Salisbury, 10,000 years	Watching a place across centuries
The Sunne in Splendour	Sharon Kay Penman	Wars of the Roses	Royal politics
Wolf Hall	Hilary Mantel	Tudor court	Literary readers
The Last Kingdom	Bernard Cornwell	Viking England	Battles and action

What Makes a Book Like The Pillars of the Earth?

Follett's novel mixes three things: a real historical crisis (the Anarchy, a civil war in 1100s England), common people as the heroes rather than kings, and a story long enough that children grow up and take over. It also has proper villains you love to hate.

The picks below are sorted from the closest matches to books that share one or two of these traits. All of them are long, so you get the same feeling of living inside a world for weeks.

1. World Without End by Ken Follett

Follett returns to Kingsbridge two centuries later. The cathedral still stands, but the town now faces the Black Death, the Hundred Years' War, and a corrupt priory. Four children who see a killing in the woods carry the story into adulthood.

It is the obvious next step and many readers like it just as much. The descendants of Tom Builder and Jack are still around. Find World Without End on Amazon.

2. The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett

This prequel goes back to around the year 1000, when Kingsbridge is just a few huts by a river. A boatbuilder, a Norman noblewoman, and an ambitious monk shape what the town will become, while Viking raids and a corrupt bishop make life hard.

Read it third or read it first; it works either way. Find The Evening and the Morning on Amazon.

3. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

A clever monk investigates a string of deaths at a wealthy Italian abbey in 1327. The answer is hidden in the monastery's library.

If you liked Prior Philip and the monastery politics in Pillars, you will feel right at home. It is shorter and more of a puzzle. Find The Name of the Rose on Amazon.

4. Sarum by Edward Rutherfurd

Rutherfurd follows a handful of families around Salisbury from the Ice Age to the twentieth century. You see Stonehenge rise, the Romans arrive, and Salisbury Cathedral built, the same kind of project at the heart of Pillars.

It is the best pick if what you loved was watching one place change over a very long time. Find Sarum on Amazon.

5. The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman

Penman tells the story of Richard III and the Wars of the Roses from his childhood to Bosworth Field. She gives a full, human portrait of a king that Shakespeare turned into a villain.

It is the right choice if you enjoyed the noble families and the power struggles of Pillars more than the building scenes. Find The Sunne in Splendour on Amazon.

6. Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman

Llywelyn the Great fights to unite Wales and marries Joanna, the daughter of England's King John. Their marriage sits on the fault line between two countries at war.

It opens Penman's Welsh Princes trilogy and has the same mix of love story and politics as Pillars. Find Here Be Dragons on Amazon.

7. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Thomas Cromwell, a blacksmith's son, rises to become Henry VIII's most powerful adviser. Mantel tells it from inside his head, close and sharp.

It is more literary than Follett and moves at a slower pace, but it won the Booker Prize and is the best novel about Tudor power ever written. The rise of a common man echoes Jack's story in Pillars. Find Wolf Hall on Amazon.

8. The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell

Uhtred, an English boy raised by Danish Vikings, has to choose a side as Alfred the Great fights to save Wessex. It opens a thirteen-book series that follows the birth of England.

Cornwell writes the best battle scenes in historical fiction. Pick it if the war and violence in Pillars kept you turning pages. Find The Last Kingdom on Amazon.

9. Katherine by Anya Seton

The true story of Katherine Swynford, who became the mistress and later the wife of John of Gaunt, son of Edward III. Their children became the ancestors of the Tudors.

Published in 1954, it is the classic medieval love story. Many readers say it was the book that made them love historical fiction. Find Katherine on Amazon.

10. The Physician by Noah Gordon

Rob Cole, an orphan in eleventh-century London, learns he can sense when someone is dying. He disguises himself as a Jew and travels to Persia to study medicine under the great scholar Avicenna.

It has the same rags-to-mastery story as Jack in Pillars, but swaps stone for medicine. It was a huge bestseller in Germany and Spain. Find The Physician on Amazon.

11. The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell

Cornwell retells King Arthur as real history: a warlord in fifth-century Britain holding off the Saxons, with Merlin as a scheming druid. There is no magic sword, only mud, politics, and war.

Many Cornwell fans call it his best work and it opens the Warlord trilogy. Find The Winter King on Amazon.

12. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

If you came here through the TV series or an audiobook, the paperback is worth having on the shelf. It is the book that made Follett's name outside of spy thrillers.

It also makes a strong gift for anyone who loves history but has never tried historical fiction. Find The Pillars of the Earth on Amazon.

Want the Real History Behind the Novels?

Several of these books are based on real events: the Anarchy, the Black Death, the Wars of the Roses. If the history caught your interest, browse the Skriuwer catalogue for short nonfiction books on medieval Europe, castles, and the Middle Ages.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I read after The Pillars of the Earth?

Read World Without End, Ken Follett's direct sequel set in the same town two hundred years later. After that, try The Evening and the Morning (the prequel) or Sarum by Edward Rutherfurd.

What order should I read the Kingsbridge books in?

In order of the story: The Evening and the Morning, The Pillars of the Earth, World Without End, A Column of Fire, and The Armour of Light. In order of publication, Pillars comes first. Most readers start with Pillars.

Is The Pillars of the Earth based on a true story?

The town of Kingsbridge and its people are fictional. The background is real: the civil war between Stephen and Matilda, the murder of Thomas Becket, and the way cathedrals were built in that era.

Is there a book like The Pillars of the Earth but shorter?

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco is about half the length and also centers on a medieval monastery. The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell is another shorter choice.